Rebellion
by darkmickyangel
Summary: After Kotetsu's powers run finally runs out he is asked by the military to help start a program for arresting NEXT in cities that don't have Heroes to catch them. He decides to join, but when an anti-NEXT group rears it's head in Sternbild...
1. Chapter 1

I don't own these characters, they belong to their respective owners

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"I am truly sorry; it is just that without NEXT powers, you can't be a Hero. I am sure you could do the job without them, Kotetsu. But if we allow you to be a hero without powers everyone would try to apply for a job as a Hero." The Director of the Secondary Hero squad sighed "I have talked with the police department, and they said that with a little training you would be welcomed with open arms. Don't think of it as losing your job, think of it… as a demotion. Here is the chief inspector's card. She asked me to give it to you and tell you that if you want the job, call her during business hours and she will tell you when to come in for training."

"Thanks" Kotetsu glumly accepted the card "I appreciate what you've done for me."

The director smiled, "it is nothing, even though you only worked here for a little over 3 months, you performed outstanding. I do not think our moral as a whole has been very high with all the disapproval we get from the fans; but it has raised considerably since you joined. Ever think about teaching at the hero academy?"

Kotetsu scratched his neck nervously, "no, teaching is not for me, I would probably sleep though all the classes"

The director laughed, "Then maybe that would not be a good option." He reached out his hand and looked at Kotetsu, "but whatever you become, I hope it is something that you are happy with. Good Bye-Wild Tiger."

Kotetsu reached out and shook the hand, "good bye,"

Kotetsu closed the door to the Secondary Hero League office, and sighed. It had been three months since Kotetsu had joined the secondary hero League, and that was how long it had taken for his powers to completely run out. Three months and now he was a 'powerless' human. Kotetsu lowered himself onto a bench and looked at the card the Director had given him. Kotetsu couldn't decide whether to throw the damn thing away, or take the job. It wasn't like he needed the money from the job.

What had motivated Kotetsu to become a secondary hero was that his daughter Kaede had thought he had been lazy just hanging around the house. She had wanted her father to be a Hero, something he could never accomplish unless he discovered he had a hidden NEXT power within the next few days.

Kotetsu stood up and slid the card into his pocket; he needed a beer to mull over a decision like this. So he walked off to the parking garage, taking a short cut between two buildings, trying not to pay attention to the crowd of people he left behind, or the Hero TV live streaming on a TV nearby, or the garbage littering the streets, or the person hunched over behind some crates, the blood on that person's clothes, the outfit in general!

"Oh my god" Kotetsu shouted then quickly covered his mouth and looked around, no one was in the ally way. He took a step back as the hunched blue and white figure, partially hidden by the crates stood up. "Lunatic" Kotetsu breathed.

"Leave," Lunatic commanded hoarsely, he was holding his right side, where blood had soaked though his outfit, "and I won't burn you"

"y-you're hurt" Kotetsu stated numbly.

"You think I don't know that?" Lunatic growled, "Now leave, this is your last warning!"

Suddenly there was a scraping sound, and Lunatic grabbed Kotetsu and pulled him behind the crates before Kotetsu could even look up. "Silence" Lunatic hissed quietly into his ear, holding him in a surprisingly strong head lock for someone who was injured.

Kotetsu didn't dare call out for the supposed Hero he knew was probably looking for Lunatic on the rooftop. Normally Kotetsu would not stay still at a moment like this; he would have activated his NEXT powers and taken the villain on himself. But now he didn't have those powers (though he could probably throw the injured Lunatic off without them); or the armor that usually protected him from Lunatic's flames. He was a 'normal' person now, he couldn't do anything. Rather he didn't want to fight Lunatic and capture him, not like this. Lunatic was injured, badly. It didn't seem very heroic to catch criminals that were sick or injured already, taking credit for it would just seem wrong. Plus Lunatic was injured, badly; and had Lunatic not helped him when he had been cornered like this? God he needed to stop thinking, every time he thought, something bad happened, and Kotetsu did NOT like where this train of thought was going.

"We lost him again" Antonio's voice came from above them, angry, "…yeah I know. We will get him eventually, but it's still makes me angry that he gets away every time…. Yeah well you saw the cut that sword gave him, tell the police to check the hospitals. Too bad he took the damn thing, could have gotten DNA from it… yeah, who uses swords these days? I'm going to head back now."

Lunatic and Kotetsu listened to Rock Bison walk away, and after a few seconds Lunatic released Kotetsu, "sword? " he said dumbstruck, looking at Lunatic.

"LEAVE" Lunatic hissed.

Kotetsu looked at Lunatic, hunched over and clutching his side. He saw now, a sword behind him, it was horribly decorated, but apparently still sharp. He made up his mind, "no, my car is just across the street-"

"What does your car matter?"

"We can get to my house in it, and then we could stop the bleeding I have-"

"Don't throw your demented justice into this situation!" Lunatic hissed, "just leave!"

"You saved me when Maverick was after me and now I'm going to repay you the favor." Kotetsu said seriously, "and I don't even know why I'm doing this so-so just stay here while I go get a car."

With that Kotetsu left Lunatic in the alley way and walked calmly to the parking garage. He got into his green SUV stopped to think about what he was doing. He knew he couldn't just leave Lunatic in the alley way now, it went against everything he was not to help someone, but helping lunatic wasn't the same as lunatic helping him. Helping Lunatic was a crime that could put him in jail; Lunatic helping him was just Lunatic being a vigilante. He shuddered to think what Judge Yuri, the judge that had been assigned to all things Kotetsu after his tenth crushed car, would sentence him if he learned what he was doing.

He had to be careful. He glared down at his steering wheel, thinking. He needed to check for cameras, Lunatic needed to get into the back of the car so he could lay down, he shouldn't look like Lunatic when walking out of the alley… or he could back up into the alley, it was wide enough. But why would he be doing that? To throw something away? A plan blossomed in his head and Kotetsu went over this plan several times in his head, decided on several scenarios and then started his car.

"here is a hoodie, use the hood to cover your face till you are in the car, go keep 'watch' if anyone comes by we are going to say we are dumpster diving for some stuff. If anyone does pull off your helmet, and throw it in the back. They might not recognize you if we are lucky. I'll just grab enough to cover the sword and put it in the back. You get in the back and lay down then, we are off. There is a camera on the left building across the street directed towards us, we have maybe ten minutes before someone stops by and wonders what we are doing." Kotetsu said all this as he handed Lunatic a black hoodie Kotetsu kept in the car for cold mornings and started to dig through one of the dumpsters, "what are you waiting for?" he hissed when Lunatic simply stood there. Lunatic jumped slightly then started pulling on the hoodie, "You could get in serious trouble for doing this, Kaburagi" he growled, managing to pull the hood over his helmet.

"Well it is happening" Kotetsu pulled said, pulling dumping what looked like several computer mice and a trashed computer into one of the crates, "that's good! Now get in the car" he picked up the garish sword and placed it into the back of the car, throwing the trash on top of it.

Lunatic grunted and pulled himself into the back of the car. Kotetsu took no time in driving off.

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"Ouch!"

"It's just disinfectant, be a man"

"Kaburagi, I have a giant cut –OW- in my side, I believe I am entitled to a bitch a little."

"A wound you got trying to kill someone, I'd say it ought to hurt"

"That someone rapped five women and beat his wife to death, he deserved to die."

"How do you know he did those things?"

"He was put on trial last week, but the jury –ow be careful! - voted he was innocent. They were 'persuaded' by two of his cousins who managed to get onto the jury somehow."

"How do you know that?"

"Anyone who pays attention to court cases could find that information out, there was to be an appeal next week I think…"

"Hmm…"Kotetsu thought about this for a while then said, "this is going to need stiches."

Lunatic froze in place "NO, I'll be fine"

"No, it isn't. Give me a second I'll get a needle…"

"Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, you are getting NOT going to stitch up this wound. If it is that bad I would rather do it myself,"

"I find it extremely creepy that you know my full name and all I know about you is what your chest looks like and that you kill people as a pastime."

"I don't kill people for a pastime; I kill people who deserve to die because they themselves have killed innocent people."

"So it is okay if someone else starts killing off criminals?"

"So long as they don't hurt innocent people they can go to- get that needle away from me!"

"Loony, it won't hurt if you sit still and let me do this. I have stitched up my dog, my brother, and Antonio before. And they are all alive and kicking. Well, except for my dog… he got hit by that car… but that was after he healed!"

"Don't call me Loony, it's Lunatic"

"Fine, Lunatic, but we I _am _stitching you up. Here are some pain killers, and put this rag in your mouth to bite down on as is am stitching you up. I'll turn around"

Lunatic grudgingly lifted his helmet up to take the pills and swallow them dry, then bit into the rag and lowered his helmet back down. "Rgan" he mumbled around the rag

"Done? Okay let's start then…" Kotetsu then kneeled down and started to stitch up the cut in Lunatic's side. Lunatic, who was sitting on the edge of the counter, clutched the edge with white knuckles.

"Finished" Kotetsu announced wiping the length of the entire cut with disinfectant one last time then starting to clean up the medical supplies, "stay here, I will get you some clothes to change into"

Lunatic nodded and gently slid himself off the counter, while Kotetsu was gone he took the opportunity to spit out the rag he had been given and inspect the cut himself using the mirror in over the sink. Kotetsu had done a better job than he had thought he would do, better than anything Yuri himself could do with his very limited experience in medicine. He sighed begrudgingly and pulled his looked out the hall, he hadn't been paying much attention to his surrounding when Kotetsu herded him through the house and into the restroom. The house was surprisingly spacious for a city condo, two stories, with a huge living room and decent kitchen down stairs, two bedrooms he guessed, one master one guest. The house was a mess though, beer bottles littered the floor, and ashtrays were scattered about, most needing to be dumped.

He quickly replaced his helmet when he heard Kotetsu approaching, the man was holding a pair of sweat pants and a white t-shirt, "they will probably be a bit baggy" the man apologized in advance, "you are a lot skinnier than me, you can clean up in the rest room if you want, towels are in the closet. I'll… um try to clean up some?" Kotetsu grimaced at the mess.

"Don't bother" Lunatic said, "I should leave, I have to get back before it's dawn anyway"

"You sure?" Kotetsu looked uncertain, "You can stay the night if you want, I don't want you to open those stiches I just spent ten minutes on."

"I'll be fine" Lunatic shook his head, wondering why was this man helping him at all, after all he was a killer and he was a Hero, "I'll be careful not to open the stiches… thank you for… helping me."

"It's fine" Kotetsu scratched the back of his head, "compared to how you helped me when Maverick was accusing me, just a few stiches is nothing. By the way I've been meaning to ask you, why did you help me?"

Lunatic was thrown for a moment by the sudden question; "Because it was the right thing to do" he cursed himself silently for answering so quickly, he didn't want to argue about his beliefs right now. Kotetsu seemed to think be thinking about his answer.

Lunatic was surprised that Kotetsu actually was paying attention to what he was saying and not just shutting it down as 'a murderer's ranting's ignore him and try to arrest him' like everyone else did. He suddenly felt the need to explain to him how he had discovered that Kotetsu's entire record had been cleared and that he knew Kotetsu would not even squish a bug on purpose, let alone kill a person. So he had decided to help Kotetsu get away from the hero's because he knew something had been going on that he was not aware of. Why did he feel the need to explain anything to Kotetsu at all?

Damn he was so confused, as he usually felt when the subject of Kotetsu came up. It was all because Kotetsu was the huge contradiction in the way Yuri saw humanity. Humans were vain, and self-centered, Heroes were not saving people because they felt the need to, but for popularity; Kotetsu contradicted all of these things, and it gave him a headache every time he saw Kotetsu act against these morals. He was the black hole in his view of Justice.

"So you think everything you do is right in one way or another?" Kotetsu asked, snapping Yuri out of his mind rant, a habit he really should drop.

"Well, no" Lunatic said after a while, feeling very queasy "Nobody's perfect… I mean it is wrong to kill people in general, but I only kill people that kill or hurt other people, so it isn't like I'm slaughtering people for no reason"

"So you do it because you feel like it is the right thing to do?" Kotetsu seemed to be thinking out loud and not really asking Yuri directly.

Yuri shrugged, "well- part is because even when they are caught by the police and such they are just put into jail where they eventually get out and the process repeats itself, it seemed like if they were just put to death for committing those crimes, like some countries do, There would be less crime. I mean a lot of the criminals I kill don't care if they are caught or not, because the judicial system is such a way that they don't really get punished at all…" Yuri fell silent, why was he explaining his motives to this man? Yuri didn't have to make anyone understand Lunatic's motives.

"Is it because the City doesn't have a death Penalty anymore?"

"The City deemed it 'inhuman'"

Kotetsu frowned, "So then you showed up, because you felt like justice wasn't doing its part."

"Well… yes and no" Yuri said turning to face the living room, not able to bring him to meet Kotetsu's gaze.

"Well at least you aren't completely bad" Kotetsu said lighting a cigarette, and taking a seat on the living room couch, "I mean you aren't an angel obviously, but at least you have some sense of justice, that makes you a few steps above a demon"

Yuri was dumb struck at Kotetsu's words for a minute, then shook his head, "I'm not some Hero, Kotetsu, I'm just some crazy person trying to push his views onto the world because I is what I think is my duty to some _god_ I that talks to me in my sleep. Were you not the one who told me that all I was doing was senseless killing?"

"well… I thought that at first, at least" Kotetsu said after taking a drag at his cigarette, "But then I looked into some of the people you killed after that lady killer incident, and well… they kind of did deserve to die…" Kotetsu stared down at the ash tray in front of him, his brow's knit "it's confusing. You think about these things and they just keep going in circles like the whole fight about which religion is the one God wants you to follow."

The room grew quiet, Yuri shifted in the uncomfortable silence, not really sure what to say at all, he needed to get away and think about all that Kotetsu had said, he looked over at the clock, "I, should go, it's getting late."

"Okay" Kotetsu said sitting back, "hey, if you ever need help or, anything medical you can't do yourself; don't be afraid to come here, just make sure not to bring the cops," he chuckled, "though I might not be in town,"

"I think you've repaid your debt in full, so don't be worried" Yuri said as he approached the back door he turned around just before he left, "thanks again, Kotetsu."

"No problem"

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It had been a few days since Yuri's injury, and he still had not recovered fully. Kotetsu's stiches had held, and thankfully the wound had not gotten infected, so he was recovering quickly. Lunatic would probably be haunting the streets again by the end of the next week or so. He was still amazed at how calm Kotetsu had been, when he had gotten home he had almost dropped several dishes he had been cleaning up, as Hero TV made a small announcement that Wild Tiger's powers had officially faded away, and today had been his final day as a Hero. Yuri thought that anyone normal would be at least a little depressed if they were in Kotetsu's shoes; yet Kotetsu in person hadn't looked fazed at all, he looked as normal as Kotetsu ever been. The fact that the man's powers had faded, exactly like his father's; yet Kotetsu himself had remained cheerful, the exact opposite of his father: It made the scar his father had so kindly given him ache. And the conversation he had held with Kotetsu didn't help. Wild Tiger had always disproved of what he had been doing as a hero, yet now as Kotetsu he was saying thought he was doing something good for the city: it all made his head spin. He had decided not to think too much about it.

"Just because someone might support your views doesn't mean it's right" Yuri physically flinched as a translucent figure of Mr. Legend scolded him. Besides the flinch, Yuri didn't acknowledge the apparition, and continued reviewing the evidence for his next case, "still ignoring me I see" Mr. Legend sighed, "you know it won't work, Son"

Yuri slapped his desk and turned to his 'father' "shut up,"

"Ah, so you can speak,"

"You're just some figment of my imagination, ghosts don't exist. Get lost."

"What about Thanatos; don't you believe in gods?"

"He's just an excuse I came up with in my lunacy!" Yuri nearly yelled, he took a breath and calmed his voice, "if god truly did exist… you would have never picked up drinking when your powers started to fade. Then I wouldn't have killed you… he, god or Thanatos, does not exist in any form. There is only justice."

"Who is to say what justice is and isn't?" Mr. Legend asked solemnly, "what gives you the right to punish others?"

"I'm a judge" Yuri said rubbing his temple, his scar was starting to sting. It always did when he talked to his father's ghost. Why had he started talking at all he knew this was going to happen, "it's my duty to see that Justice is delivered without bias,"

"And you do, when you aren't killing criminals and fighting Heroes. Why can't you just be satisfied with doing that? Why kill them, they will be caught eventually and then given the sentence they deserve."

Yuri was about to reply when a crash was heard, drawing his attention. When he looked back over his shoulder his father's ghost was gone, "good riddance" he growled, getting up to see what the noise had been. It was the middle of the night, and the neighborhood was usually very quiet. He left his study and walked down the hall. He paused a beat to check in on his ill mother, who was quietly sleeping in her bed, then continued on.

The back yard was small and quaint, a set of tables and chairs on the patio, and a bed of neglected flowers taking up most of the grassy. A medium sized oak tree with a thread-bare tire swing, a rarity in these condos, provided much needed shade during the summer. There wasn't anything out of place as far as he could see; he really should weed the flower bed. Noise from the front of the house drew his attention, and he jogged around through the side gate to investigate.

"Get back here!" a Man shouted, the noise was coming from two houses down, the lights were on, there was a crash and then a woman's scream.

Yuri jogged quickly out into the street, he wasn't the only person coming out of his house, "I'm calling the police," his neighbor, Mr. Jones said as Yuri walked passed. The man was already on the phone, "hello, yes I'd like to report an incident happening down the street, it sounds like a fight… Mr. Petrov! Where are you going?"

Yuri ignored his neighbor, running up to the house, several people followed him. The man was obviously hurting his wife! He stormed up to the front door, and shoved the door open, the house was in a mess, broken things were lying everywhere.

"who are you? What are you doing in my house!" a man, standing over a woman clutching her face, yelled.

"Get away from her," one of the men shouted who had come in with him shouted, then the three of them managed to pulled the man away from the woman, the other two wrestled the man into a head lock. Yuri helped the woman off the ground and onto the couch. The woman's face was red, and her eye was showing the first signs of what looked to be a nasty black eye.

"Are you okay? We've called the police they should be here soon." He told the woman.

"Are these the guys you've been cheating on with me?" the man laughed, "This pasty freak? These twigs?" the man spat, ignoring his captors, "I could squash them with my little thumb,"

"You're drunk" Yuri's hands curled into fists, he felt his power urging to get to the surface, to burn the man to a crisp on the spot. A wife beater and a drunk! "get him out of my sight, take him into the kitchen and tie him down so he won't get away."

"I never cheated!" the woman cried softly, "I would never, not with Charley-Oh my god Charley!" The woman started to become hysterical, "my baby, where is he?"

"Calm down," Yuri said keeping the woman from running off, "I'll go look for the child, and I'll bring him to you. Your ankle looks twisted. Where is he?"

"He- he should be upstairs" The woman said starting to calm down, "thank you."

"It's nothing," Yuri said, he checked on the two men who were holding the woman's husband, the two were obviously father and son, the son being around 20ish and the father 40 , "He secure?"

"Yeah," the father said bitterly, he shoved the man into a dinning chair and hand cuffed him, the son was gagging the man with a towel. Yuri looked questioningly at the man when he saw the cuffs "Junior here is a part-time cop," the man said as an explanation.

"There's a kid, I'm going to bring him down to his mama" Yuri just said and went up the stairs, the first room he encountered was a small rest-room, the second one was the child's. It was baby blue, the floor was littered with toys, and there was a crib in the corner. He walked up to the crib, the baby was sitting up in its crib, clutching a bottle, looking at him with the roundest eyes Yuri had ever seen. "Hey there," he said awkwardly, as he approached the crib, "ready to go see mama?"

The mother was relived to the point of tears when he brought her his baby, she cried, holding the toddler close and shaking, thanking god that she and her son had been delivered from this whole mess unharmed. Yuri knew he should have stayed and make sure the woman was fine, but it was just to awkward standing there, with her crying. So he left her to cry in peace and went into the kitchen. The woman's husband was glaring at all of them from where he was tied down, the atmosphere was heavy, and filled with contempt, he could deal with this better, he didn't like people who cried.

"I'm, uh, not good with crying people" he said when the father and son questioned his entry.

"Junior," the Father said, not taking his eyes off the abusive father, "go get your mother, tell her to bring something to calm the lady down, better yet take her there, she can wait there for the police, to many broken things around a toddler makes me uneasy"

"Yes sir," the son said, before leaving.

"It's a sad day when things like this happen" the father said after he left, "what is the world coming to, when husbands beat their loved ones."

"Indeed," Yuri said leaning against the wall.

"Men like this are demented, not even men anymore; don't matter if they are drunk or whatever, it is all excuses. You're a judge yes?"

"Yeah," Yuri glanced over at the father, who was still glaring at the man.

"What's he going to get? As far as punish meant, I mean?"

"No more than a year," Yuri thought, "If he has been reported before maybe two years. He'll pay a hefty fine either way though."

"Bah" The father shook his head, "should be more, personally I think he should be tied to a pole and beat himself, an eye for an eye. That's the way justice should work."

Yuri shrugged, "it isn't my job to change chose the punishments for criminals, I just trial them. Either way this guy won't have a case in my court room, if we judges are involved in an incident we aren't supposed to hold that case,"

"Your awful young for a judge, I thought judges were supposed to all be old men with tons of wrinkles." The father joked.

"That's a stereotype," Yuri faked a chuckle and tried not to have his face examined to closely, "but sadly most of the people I do work with, fit that description perfectly."

"for a bunch of old geezers, seems to have lost their marbles then, a man like this should get more than a few years…"

"Father the police are here!" the son announced, coming into the house followed by several officers, "we tied him up in the kitchen" the boy explained. The police untied the man, and hauled him off in a police car.

They interviewed all three of the men, the wife, and several people who had called the police. It wasn't until very early in the morning that Yuri stumbled into his house and got ready for the long day that inevitably he had to face.

"Says here the good judge helped apprehend the man" Kotetsu said with interest, hiding his face slightly behind the paper.

"Kotetsu, stop trying to change the topic" Muramasa, Kotetsu's older brother scolded, "So you got a job offer from the police? Sounds like a good job, why don't you take it?"

"Because it would involve me working in Sternbild," Kotetsu gave in, folding the newspaper back up. He placed it down and rubbed his eyes, "I'm tired of living away from home, Muramasa, and I want to stay here, close to Kaede. She has not got a hold of her powers fully yet, and I am tired of seeing her grow up when I'm not there,"

"What about this other job offer?" Muramasa asked "you said you were offered one a few days ago?"

Kotetsu took a drink from his orange juice, before looking out the bar's window, "they didn't even tell me exactly what they job was," he grumbled, "they said they had a position coming up, that a retired Hero was exactly what they needed for the job,"

"Who would you be working for?"

"… some agency, I think. They didn't really say" Kotetsu said after a long pause.

"What would they want with you?" Muramasa joked, "Do they need someone to destroy property on command?"

Kotetsu laughed "no, it was something about defense. I don't think I'll accept it, it sounds too fishy."

"wouldn't hurt to learn more about the job," Muramasa sighed, "so then are you just going to retire? You're not even 40 yet, you could still do something,"

Kotetsu thought silently for a while, then sighed, "I don't know, I guess I could look into this fishy job more, they might let me stay here,"

Muramasa stood up and smiled, "might as well, just don't come home smelling like fish,"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It was nice of you to come in for a briefing, Mr. Kaburagi" a man in a very nice suit said, "come this way, please,"

Kotetsu smiled as he shook the man's hand and took in his surroundings before following the man. He was outside an army air force in the town, groups of pilots were marching here or there, several planes were taking off, "Didn't say this job was in the military," he commented dryly, watching a plane take off.

"That would because it isn't, exactly" the man said, "Oh, I'm Tyler Dain by the way,"

"Nice to meet you," Kotetsu scratched his neck.

"Here we are, this is the staff building." Dain announced entering a nicely decorated building, he led Kotetsu to an office on the first floor, there was a stiff looking woman sitting at the desk, "this is Major Ray," Dain said, "Major, here is Mr. Kaburagi,"

"Afternoon Mr. Kaburagi, Mr. Dain," The woman said, standing up and shaking his hand, "please have a seat, both of you."

"Not to sound rude or anything," Kotetsu said as he sat down, "but what is exactly this job you are offering me supposed to be?"

"Mr. Dain here has an idea that the government will possibly like to sponsor, Mr. Kaburagi" the Major said bridging her fingers, "they will deal with the NEXT criminals outside of Sternbild, since we don't have Heroes. They will actually be more like police than military, but the government is funding it, and they want a team like this to report to us the military-"

"It's basically Hero TV, but without all the publicity," Dain said cutting in, "the normal police don't have the equipment or training to deal with big NEXT criminals, and only Sternbild has the Heroes. The truth is that everywhere NEXT criminals are evading the police and it is becoming a big problem. So I proposed making a special division, like SWAT to deal with the problem."

"The team Mr. Dain here is talking about will have training the federal government can't afford to give to every police officer," Major Ray said, "and equipment to help them take down NEXT easier. The government decided to allow a trial group, and then expand if it proved successful."

"And this has to do with me how?" Kotetsu asked.

"The only ones who have large experience dealing with fighting NEXT are the Heroes, which you use to be" Major Ray explained, "Me and Mr. Dain thought it would be a huge boost to this team if you could be on it. In short we are asking for you to help form and lead this team, Mr. Kaburagi"

Kotetsu pinched the bridge of his nose and was silent for a while; the other two looked at him expectantly. Kotetsu sighed, sitting up straighter in his chair, "listen, I understand where you're coming from with asking me to do this… and this sounds like a good job, but I have a family…"

"The first few months will be here, training, and dealing with recruits," Major Ray said knowingly, "and then after that you will be working from the police station down town. Working normal hours, it will be two whole years, before the team is branched off, and even then you don't have to leave to those branches permanently. I have a family to, and I understand wanting to be close to them."

Kotetsu looked up and nodded, "sounds good then… um so if I do join; I'll be the chief of this 'team'?"

"You would be reporting to me," Major Ray said, "Mr. Dain here will be the technical supervisor, in charge of 'specialty' equipment. During training you would teach the recruits how best to fight with NEXT opponents,"

"Will these recruits be NEXT themselves? And you say recruits, so they will be military personnel?" Kotetsu asked.

"Most of them will be normal people, though there might be a few NEXT, but not with extraordinary powers," Dain said, "people with powers that are useful… usually become Heroes."

"and yes the people we are letting in have some military training, but only the basics" the major said, "however we aren't just letting anyone sighn up, we have a few candidates selected already."

Kotetsu nodded and looked down in thought, "If you wouldn't mind I'd like to think on this; before I commit to anything,"

Dain frowned and was about to say something before the Major stopped him, "That's fine, here is my card," she said standing up, "call me tomorrow around lunch with your answer, and have a good day Mr. Kaburagi"

"It was nice meeting you both" Kotetsu said, shaking their hands and then leaving. He walked slowly to his car, looking around the air field contemplatively.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The military?" Muramasa said surprised, handing over a beer to his brother.

"They want me to lead a trial team, that will deal with NEXT criminals," Kotetsu sighed, flopping down onto the bar, "training people from scratch, then being placed in the field with nothing but a prayer."

"It sounds like a good cause" Kaede said, munching on some chips and watching the TV.

"But dangerous," their mother said, concerned.

"How's the pay?" Muramasa asked

"Decent," Kotetsu shrugged, "and the job will be no less dangerous than working as a Hero,"

"Yes, but then you had NEXT powers and could stop bullets," their mother sighed, "oh, just be careful, please"

"It seems simple to me" Kaede cut in, waving her feet back and forth, "if you don't want to do it, just get another job. If you want to, do it."

Kotetsu smiled, and ruffled his daughter's hair, "I guess you're right. Well it does seem like a good thing to be doing, so I guess I'll do it." He stood up, ignoring her protests about being treated like an adult and not a child, "I'm off to bed, good night"


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own the Tiger and Bunny Characters, or any of the DC and Marvel comic references in this story; everyone else is made up for the plot of the story line.

The * refer to the foot notes at the footnote of the page

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You have no idea how much this means to me, Mr. Kaburagi" Dain said, as he showed Kotetsu the training rooms for the trial team, "the politicians nearly scrapped my idea almost as soon as I brought it up, if it were not for the fact that there had been a huge bank robbery by a group of NEXT the next day they would not have considered it."

"Good to know, so what kind of equipment were you thinking of the group having to help catch NEXT?" Kotetsu asked nervously, "I mean, normal humans don't have any particular advantage over NEXT…"

"Well what do you have in mind? You are the experienced fighter here, which is why we hired you"

"I don't think we would get very far by trying to simply overpowering each NEXT," Kotetsu said wisely, "we need to outsmart our opponents, not just win a fist fight. So we need to be able to adapt to any situation, and be able to gather information on them before we fight them. Not just charge in blindly."

"The way you acted as a hero, I'm surprised you even think about tactics" Dain chuckled.

"I did form some plans," Kotetsu defended, "but instincts are very important to, you need to be able to react without thinking about it. Sometimes you can't wait to form a plan as a Hero, because people will get hurt if you wait to long,"

"That wire contraption seemed very useful for getting around," Dain commented, "maybe we could use that?"

"Definitely," Kotetsu sat down on a bench with Dain, "I have some spares of when I still had my old suit, they aren't very good, but they fit around your arm very conveniently, you could adapt them. We need headsets to keep in touch, and no full body power suits. You would not believe the noise they make. If we need to gather information before an arrest, we need to be stealthy, they are very expensive and the politicians love inexpensive programs."

"That makes sense" Dain asked, "hold on let me write this down… pen, paper, okay, no power… suits. Head… Sets… grapple… "

"We also need a way to see in the dark, inferred or something." Kotetsu elaborated, "Maybe the head set could be in a helmet along with the infrared. In my power suit there was also a way to zoom in on things in the visor, it was pretty convenient. What do we have as far as protection?"

"I've already made the fabric for the uniform," Dain said, "It's fire proof and can has reflectors built into the fabric so people can't detect your body. It also will hold your body temperature in, keep you warm in cold weather."

"That's very useful, where did you get it?"

"I made it, for a college final" Dain bragged, "Kid Dragon's uniform is made out of it."

"Really?" Kotetsu said honestly amazed, "I always thought it was just normal cloth… wait is it very conductive?"

"Yes," Dain said after a second.

"It needs some sort of plastic underlying then," Kotetsu said serious, "not everyone can live with electricity conducting all along their body, maybe an insulator underneath the cloth, the side facing body in case we do get shocked. Maybe an electric weapon as well, like a tazer"

"Right noted" Dain said, writing down some notes and drawing a quick sketch,"

"So we're going to capture NEXT with some fancy ropes and some convenient outfits?" Major Reed said from behind them; making both men jump slightly.

"Oh, good morning Major," joked Kotetsu, smiling happily.

"What are you doing, trying to scare us?" Dain said indignantly as he bent down to pick up the pen he had dropped.

"no, just wondering why you two are sitting over here talking like a bunch of school girls planning a dress design for Prom," Major ray said calmly, "I was expecting you two in my office, after you had given Kotetsu a tour of the facility"

"Ah, well we got a little distracted," Kotetsu scratched his head, "sorry"

"It's fine, just don't do it again," The Major said and sat down opposite from the two men, "if you really want to know; the general design of the outfit is already decided upon. Your team will be wearing outfits made with Mr. Dain's cloth that will basically look like our army uniforms. Regulation Pants and shirt, possible body armor."

"umm," Kotetsu placed his hand on his chin in thought, "the clothes need to be tight fitting, and not hinder movement at all, I'm not saying it should be something like my old hero suit, but body armor is simply too constricting, and obvious."

"We can do with a ¾ sleeve over shirt made out of my material," Dain said sketching a design crudely out on his paper, "with the wire shooter on their forearm like this, military pants would be useful, Blue Rose's outfit was made by a college of mine, it's light weight and very easy to move in, but is bullet proof. We could make an undershirt made of that material that would protect the chest area."

"That sounds like a good idea," the Major said examining the sketch, "it would be close fitting and easy to move in,"

"Her outfit is bullet proof?" Kotetsu said amazed, "okay, now that is covered we need more equipment to fight with… a knife about a foot long would be good."

"A dagger?" Dain said, "in this day and age?"

"Knifes can be useful for several things, like if you need to cut something or other. They don't need ammo to run, just have it for a last resort." Kotetsu shrugged, "I know how to use a knife in a fight, I could teach the recruits easily; along with hand to hand combat."

"Sure why not," Major Ray said, "a gun of coarse…"

"A small, concealed one," Kotetsu nodded, "that can be carried around easily, I'd rather not depend too much on a gun, criminals plan for guns and they usually end up as dead weight"

"Well we don't exactly have Batman's utility belt" Major Ray said sarcastically.

"No," Dain's eyes sparkled and he started writing stuff down, "but I can make a pretty damn good replica, I can make small smoke canisters that could have knockout gas in them, flash grenades, small bombs you could stick into walls then remote detonate, compressed trip wire traps, maybe those bombs could also have motion detection on them, if I have all the right materials of course,"

"A way to demobilize people would be amazing, without hurting them I mean," Kotetsu said, "is there some kind of foam that expands really fast? We could set traps for the criminals to fall into,"

"you two are a bunch of nerds," Major Ray shook her head, "but I guess so long as it is low cost and works you can do whatever you want, I have a meeting to get to. Recruits are coming in tomorrow, be ready to start training,"

"Okay, have them meet me in the big gym at 7:30" Kotetsu said over Dain's babbling, "I'll set the training course up right after I finish here"

"Maybe some throwing knives," Dain said lost in his own world, "that do stuff…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kotetsu breathed in and out deeply, looking around at the coarse he had spent most of yesterday setting up. It would have to do; Major Ray would be bringing in the recruits any second now. He was still amazed that he was going to teach and command a whole group. He scratched his chin nervously, praying that what he had planned would work.

"And this is the big gym," Major Rose said entering with 15 or so people, "most of your training will be done in here,"

All of them lined up, and examined the room in what Kotetsu assumed was intrest, "Good morning all of you, I am to be your teacher, my name is Kotetsu Kaburagi" he said bowing slightly out of habit, "I can take it from here major,"

Kotetsu walked up to the edge of the platform he was standing on, in the middle of a huge maze he had made out knee-high, rode blocks, "As you can see I've built a very big maze here, your goal, is to reach me. Begin."

Each person stood still for a moment, and then they all started moving forward, they randomly walked through the maze none of them finding their way through.

"okay, this is not getting us anywhere," one of them said after a while, there were several murmurs of agreement, "but are we allowed to work together, I thought we had to work alone," another one said, all of them burst into confusion.

"Hey!," a short man with red hair shouted, getting everyon's attention, "he never said we couldn't work together, it is a test obviously, everyone to the start. We have to work togeather"

All of them looked up to Kotetsu, who was standing with his arms crossed on the podium; he smiled down at them, but said nothing. They all met up at the beginning of the maze, and walked along the edge, they then discovered that there were three separate entrances to the maze, but they could only see one finish. So split into three groups, sending a person off at each turn to see if it was a dead end. Soon after they started they learned that it was not going to work that way either, because the groups were running into each other. They regrouped, and sent only three people into the maze, each hugging the right wall of a certain entrance, the group watched for half an hour as the three marched along. However at the end they all ended up back at the entrances somehow.

"If only we could see it from above"

"Yeah, that way we could follow it from the end to beginning"

Each of them were silent for a while, "He never said we couldn't, one shrugged" the red head shrugged and climbed up onto the bleachers, and started to solve to the maze with his finger, he frowned. "What the hell? They're all dead ends"

"Your eyes are just bad," one of them joked, he joined the other one and looked down at the maze, "the Hell?" he said after a while.

"See what I mean?"

"They all end in dead ends?" one asked then looked at Kotetsu, who was still standing with his arms crossed. The man hesitated slightly, then stepped over the knee high wall, and kept doing so till he reached the end of the maze, and stepped onto the platform.

Kotetsu smiled, "congrats on making it first," he held out his hand, "nice to meet you, what is your name?"

"Weston," he said nervously shaking the outstretched hand.

"But isn't the whole point to get through the maze?" a brunet lady said from the other side of the maze, very annoyed.

"No," Kotetsu said smiling, "I only said you had to reach me, I never said anything of the sort, now come over here, all of you. I don't much like shouting across rooms at people"

The group stumbled over the walls to the plat form, "Listen to me," he said sitting down on the edge of the platform when they were all there, "you have been told what we are trying to make here right?" everyone nodded, "well when we are out there trying to capture NEXT you need to not immediately assume things. I simply told you there was a maze, and to come to me, you automatically assumed that you had to get through the maze to reach me. Rule number five: never assume that there are set rules, if someone dose not tell you to do something, then it is okay. " He smiled.

All 15 of the men and woman frowned and looked at each other in uncertain, Kotetsu stood up and dusted his pants off, "alright, now that you have all made it here, everyone circle up," the recruits did so, "now, let us hear your names, starting with this young lady on my right."

"Lidia Storm", "Gregory Matts" "Jim Stevenson" "Lisa Harris" "Frank Key" "Andrew Roy" "Harper Kip" "Stan Lee" "Jess Cooper" "Oliver Wreck" "Weston Churchill" "Greta Grendel" "Tony Smithsburger" "Neil Watts" "Sherry Locket" "Kotetsu Kaburagi, but you already know that, now let's clean this maze up, the rode blocks go against that wall there, Harris and Churchill drag this platform into the storage room please"

After they had put of the maze away he gathered them all together again, "so this is how things are going to work out, there are a total of 16 people on this team, that makes four teams of four, at the end of the training I will officially divide you up, there will be a leader per team. Now, we will start off each morning with a basic warm up, then we will practice Aikido* I know most of you already some MCMAP** but I would like you to know several ways of defending yourself. Our group isn't aiming to learn to overpower NEXT, we aiming to capture them, so the less injuries inflicted on either party the better. Remember this: we plan to capture them, by being _smarter_ than them. In the afternoon we will run drills to practice our team work, we will rotate each day till we know each other well enough to know who our teams will be, I will tell you now" Kotetsu stopped his pacing to give each of them a look, "i won't put up with anything, understand?"

"Yes, sir" all of them chimed.

"Good, now who here knows any Aikido*?" Kotetsu asked, and then went straight into drilling them in the basic forms and breaking them up into groups to practice.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a long, exhausting month of training for all of them, learning how to use the new equipment Dain had built for them as well as working with each other. By the end of the month Kotetsu was certain he had prepared the recruits the best he could, but he could not shake the ominous feeling that was pulling on his gut. Their first mission, a drug bust; the man was a NEXT with super strength. He stored his drugs in a warehouse here before he shipped it into Sternbild, they had already done their reconnaissance there, and everything had gone smoothly. None of the recon team had given out their positions as they had learned the buildings layout, and taken note of how many people were in the building, and how they were armed. The team was as prepared as they could be, but he was still racked with nerves.

He looked around at the 15 other people in the car as they drove to the location; most of them were looking down at the ground in grim silence, as nervous as he was. He coughed and stood up, getting everyone's attention immediately, "well, this is it." He said, "we'll be at the droop point soon, you all know what to do. Stay in contact, report if anything unplanned happens," he reminded tapping on the issued Plexiglas visors strapped around their heads. They looked more like bulky sunglasses than helmets, but they still had thermal, zoom, and schematic capabilities, he stared looked over each of them with pride, them looking back at him as if most of them were going to be sick. The truck they were in stopped, and all of them filed out.

They split up into their groups without a word, crouched down, and started walking to their positions in silence, they had parked two buildings away from the ware house, in retrospect they didn't have far to go, it felt like they had to transverse miles. Kotetsu's team raised their arms and shot a wire grapple into the building in front of him, they then activated the crank on their arm piece to rise up to the roof tops. The people on Kotetsu's team were the best at sneaking around, which was why he had assigned them to the roof tops. They were nearly inaudible as they crossed from one roof top to another. Kotetsu haulted his team in the shadows, where they were invisible thanks to their camoflauge; he reached up and activated his COM "RED team, in position on the roof, count off." He barely whispered,

"BLUE, in position"

"GREEN still on its way, give us a second"

"YELLOW, is ago"

"Blue, scan from your position, how many people are in there?" Kotetsu whispered

"Ten, plus the target; wait something bearing a heat signature is showing up outside the building, near GREEN"

"I see it," Stevenson, the green team leader said, "in position now, it looks like… it's Lunatic! What is he doing here, he should be in Sternbild!"

"Calm down" Kotetsu hissed, "stay quiet, and keep your position" he paused, his mind working to what to do, "where is he?"

"On the edge of our building, above us," Stevenson hissed, then there was a crash that broke the silence of the night "shit he just flew into the building"

"Plan B! BLUE, do not let Lunatic escape!" Kotetsu said quickly, not bothering to stay quiet as his team moved across the building. Each of them knocked out a glass section on the overhead window, and dropped in sleeping gas bombs, filling the bottom of the warehouse with sleeping gas. His team then propelled down to the catwalk above the warehouse floor. The entire bottom floor was bathed in gas, several workers were lying down on the floor, "GREEN, YELLOW get the workers," he commanded, as the other teams blocked the exits, "Kip, set the trap, the rest of you with me!"

He turned towards the far side of the warehouse, where Lunatic was fighting with the NEXT drug lord. One of the drug lord's minions opened fire on the man in white. Lunatic jumped out of the way, but not in time, a lucky shot just barely grazed his arm. He gritted his teeth, and threw fire at the group. The Drug Lord barreled through the flames, and Lunatic barely managed to block several of the man's massive punches before he took a kick to his side. Lunatic was knocked off the cat walk and down onto some boxes.

One of his team mates started firing at the NEXT, drawing the group's attention away from Lunatic, Kotetsu shot a hook, and flew towards one of the minions, knocking him out with a kick as he landed. Kotetsu pulled out a long rod attacked to his back, and slapped the back of a second minion, sending volts of electricity through the man's body till he collapsed on to the ground. He looked up and saw Sherry Locket smartly dogging each punch, the NEXT man tried to throw at her, maybe with a lot more flare than needed. She shuffled backwards, out of his reach, and did gymnastics flip backwards, on the catwalk. As the man tried to get to her he tripped a wire trap Kip had set between the catwalk's rails, which activated a foam bomb, tying the man up with steel wires. As an extra precaution Kip knocked the man out with gas.

Seeing that the NEXT and most of the workers were already apprehended by his teams, Kotetsu leaped off of the catwalk, and onto the box Lunatic had landed on. The Villain tried to stand up when he landed, but he could barely get up onto his knees. Before the villain decided to torch him, Kotetsu pulled of his helmet, "did that kick reopen the wound?" he asked, "don't worry loony, it's me."

"Kaburagi?" Lunatic hissed, holding his side, the flames around the man's eyes diminished, "what the fuck are you doing here?"

"I'll explain later, just lay still, before you puncture a lung. You rib looks broken" Kotetsu stood up and looked down at his team members, who were al watching curiously, "Storm, Cooper get a med—kit and stretcher from the truck, he has a broken rib and will probably be going into shock soon, everyone else line up the criminals outside and wait for the police, we're to keep Lunatic's capture a secret."

He turned his back, knowing that they would follow his orders, and helped Lunatic lay down, "so you got some minions now?" Lunatic asked

"Team mates" Kotetsu corrected starting to perform first aid, "not minions. We capture NEXT that the Heroes can't because they are out of city limits"

"Never… heard of this group" Lunatic mumbled, starting to lose consciousness, ""

"This is actually our first mission" Kotetsu laughed, then turned to his team members who had brought the medical supplies "put him on gently and then take him to the military hospital, perform as much first ad that you can, I've got to stay here and take care of this" he said gesturing to the criminals lined up, "don't take his helmet off, when he wakes up make sure he is alone in the room, and… keep a fire extinguisher on hand."

The two nodded, and then carried the unconscious villain off. Kotetsu replaced his helmet, and joined the rest of the group.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*Aikido is a form of martial arts that turns an opponent against himself: wiki/Aikido

**MCMAP is the Marine Corps style of fighting: wiki/Marine_Corps_Martial_Arts

I would just like to note that this entire story was inspired by Young Justice, but is not based off it. Thus the reference to Batman.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own any of these characters; they belong to their respective owners

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was bright, too bright. Yuri moaned and turned his head away from the overhead lights; he regretted the motion immediately as a head ache he didn't realize he had decided to rear its ugly head. That constant beeping wasn't helping anything either, it sounded like it was coming from a heat monitors. So he had been hospitalized? That would explain why the room smelt of disinfectant. Why was he here though? Oh right, that drug lord smashed him into that box, and then… he frowned not able to recall what had happened after that.

"I can see you're up, Mr. Petrov, or shall I say Lunatic?" a woman's voice came in over an intercom.

Yuri cracked his eyes open, and lifted his head. He was in a simple ten by twelve foot room, laying on a hospital head. There didn't seem to be anything else but the hospital equipment and bed in his room, "so someone final captured me?" he said taking his time to get up, "good I was starting to lose faith in the law enforcement, so am I being trialed by intercom now?"

"Just taking persuasions, Mr. Petrov," the voice said, "I don't really feel like burning to death"

"I'm not going to burn everyone who walks into the room," Yuri rubbed his head, feeling a little ticked off at the tone of her voice, "I only kill people who kill other people,"

"Good to know, but we still aren't going to trust you just yet; after all you are a serial killer." The voice said, "I'm Major Ray, I'm in charge of your containment until further notice. You should know now that the walls, ceiling and floor of your room are completely fire proof, you can try to get out if you want but you will just end up burning your bed, and I'm not that inclined to provide a second one, this is your only warning." She paused for a moment, "as to your condition; you are no longer in critical condition, so all we will give you are basic meds and food through the door. That bracelet you have on you will knock you out immediately when a wireless trigger is activated if we have to actually enter the room for anything else. If you need anything now would be your time to ask, any questions?"

"Do I not get a phone call?" he asked more sarcastically then as an actual question, fingering the metallic band on his arm nervously.

"Technically we found you during a military operation, and you needed medical attention" Major Ray sighed, "Mr. Kaburagi only took you in for medical attention. You have not been placed under arrest. However you will be after you have healed. Is there anything else Mr. Petrov? Not to be rude, I have other places to be."

"I'm fine for now" Yuri said slowly, then he started, "wait, can you send someone by my house? My mother's ill and I usually look after her… just make sure someone is looking out for her, please?"

"Will do, have a nice stay," she said then the intercom clicked off.

Yuri stared at the intercom blankly for a while then sighed. He fingered the silver band on his arm again. He had been found out, he was captured. What was he going to do now? He could probably escape eventually, but then what, he would just get captured again… most likely. He leaned back into the bed, staring at the roof blankly. What now?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Good to see you all made it back" Dain said cheerfully as Kotetsu and his team walked into their locker room after their latest mission. Kotetsu gave him a small nod and smile, and then headed straight for the showers. The NEXT they had arrested tonight had led his team across town on a roof top chase that had ended when the idiot cornered herself at the riverside. Apparently he couldn't swim with the freakish costume he had on, since Kotetsu ended up having to save the woman from drowning. The river was filthy as well, "god, you smell like dead fish" Dain scrunched up his nose.

"At least you didn't have to sit next to him on the way back," Matts teased across from the locker room.

"Shut you yap I didn't see any of you guys going in after her" Wreck defended.

"Like you were so eager to go in after her," Grendel said.

"All of you be quite," Kotetsu commanded as he started to take off his armor, and then turned to Dain, "there a reason why you're here? Something wrong?"

"No nothing's wrong" Dain said nonchalantly, "I just thought you'd like to know that Lunatic, or rather Mr. Petrov finally woke up."

Kotetsu blinked, the criminal he had 'captured' had been out of it for the last week or so, recovering from some the damage to the ribs and a small concussion. He had nervously been waiting for the time when the criminal would awake. For some reason he felt like he had betrayed the man by bringing him in; after stitching him up and everything… he then realized that Dain was looking at him expecting some sort of reaction, "that's... great? How long till he is healed? Then we can arrest him?"

"He went back to sleep of course, doctors say he should do nothing but rest for the next few days." Dain said "I heard, Major Ray laid down the situation to him. He asked us to go check on his house; his mother apparently has Alzheimer's. She was being looked after by some neighbors, we are bringing her in tomorrow."

"Is she okay?" Kotetsu asked actually concerned, "she didn't harm herself, being alone for a week did she?"

"no, they found her just humming to herself when they arrived" Dain said, "well I should get going, I highly recommend that you take a shower and get that smell off you, see you"

"Ah, yes see you," Kotetsu said as Dain left, "thanks for telling me," he threw his uniform into the wash bin and after a quick rinse in the team's showers he started to get dressed in his civilian clothes.

"So why are you so concerned with Lunatic?" Key asked from across the room, "it's like you two are friends or something"

"More acquaintances, seeing as I've 'known' him for about a year and a half now" Kotetsu explained nervously, "and technically I've known his real identity for longer. I don't really get it myself"

"Is it because he saved your life that one time?" Roy said, "I know if I was in your position I'd feel guilty."

"Why would he feel guilty?"

"Because he'd owe him back, I mean Kotetsu was in some deep shit," Roy explained to Key "if someone saved me like that I'd feel obligated to return the favor…"

"I guess I kind of do feel like that," Kotetsu said thoughtfully, "but he _is_ a criminal so I'm not about to go and break him out just because I 'owe him one'. And really, besides as a judge he was a nice person, I mean he was a fair judge, and was relatively nice…"

"Fair?" Key sniggered, "so all those fines he gave you don't count for anything."

"Ummm…" Kotetsu chuckled nervously, "well I kind of deserved those seeing as I did destroy property…. But he never charged me too much or gave anyone leeway on a sentence. He was, well fair."

"I wonder if he has a split personality," Roy mused,

"Maybe," Kotetsu said, "but wither way; he should definitely be put in jail for a long time"

"Oh man, I just realized something!" Roy started, "Lunatic is Jude Petrov, right? So who's filling in for him at work? I mean he is the chief justice…"

"Oh yeah, they said we weren't going to announce Lunatic's capture just yet, so they must think he's missing or something!" Key said.

"I'll bring it up tomorrow," Kotetsu sighed, "we don't want to be accused of kidnapping"

"Is it even called kidnapping when the victim is an adult?" Roy muttered

"I don't know, I'm leaving guys," Kotetsu said as he headed towards the door, "got to go get this fish smell off me"

"Bye" "see ya" they both chimed as Kotetsu slammed his locker closed and left for his car

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Barnaby brooks Jr. was a confused man. He had been happy with the idea of rejoining the Hero force after a break off, even if it meant that he and Kotetsu would be working in different leagues. (The big wigs had wanted to keep him in the lime-light since he was still very popular, so they refused to let him be bumped down to the second league.) He had never realized how lonely he had been on his year 'off' as a Hero, till he came back. But now that Kotetsu was officially retired, had moved back to his hometown, Barnaby wasn't sure if he wanted to continue being a hero anymore. Sure it was great pay, and he was great friends with everyone now… but with Kotetsu gone the job seemed so superficial.

Barnaby heard Ivan and Keith enter the work room and turned to meet them, "hey guys, morning" he said giving off a small smile.

"Morning!" Keith said unnecessarily loud and cheery, "you're early, as usual."

"Morning" Ivan said, taking off his jacket and throwing it over a chair, "hey, do you know what that crowd of people outside is on about?"

"Crowd of people?" Barnaby said, blinking, "no, there wasn't a crowd outside when I came in, though I did get here real early today,"

"Well there is one there now," Keith said, "They're gathered at the front. Ivan and I came in through the back entrance. And it wasn't the normal group of fans either."

"Maybe Nathan's fan base is expanding?" Barnaby asked lightly,

Ivan chuckled at that, "either way, I told everyone to go through the side entrance, we all know what happened last time…" Keith started to laugh. Barnaby blushed slightly at the memory of when some fan girls cornered him at the front of the building. Antonio had barely managed to pull him out, and not before he had his favorite jacket ripped off his back. Thank god Antonio had been there…

"So what's that group outside for?" Nathan asked as he, Karina, and Pao-Lin walked in as a group.

"Yeah, what are they on about?" Pao-Lin said, "Thanks for telling us they were their Ivan, they looked angry"

"They do?" Barnaby said concerned now. It was one thing to be a simple group of fans, an actual protest group was a different story, "what were they saying?"

"We didn't get close" Karina said, "we were all walking together, and it would be pretty obvious who we were if they'd seen us."

"You know since I have green hair, Nathan's black and Karina's a teenager." Pao-Lin explained as Antonio walked in, "All it would have taken was for them to put two-and-two together."

"That was very wise of you three" Antonio said, then looked at everyone in general, "I went down into the crowd and listened to them for a while. Apparently they are claiming that all of our captures are staged; that we aren't doing anything to fight real crimes"

"Well that's stupid," Ivan slammed his hand on a table, "we don't stage any of our captures, and everyone we catch is an actual criminal! And what more can we do to stop crimes? It's not like we're the police."

"They mean that we aren't doing anything against small crimes, they think we should use out powers to work with the police, like what the second League does." Antonio explained, "Apparently there has been a 'rise in small crimes' that the police aren't handling because they police trust us heroes to do everything."

"They think we are distracting the police form doing their jobs?" Keith shook his head, "how does that logic work out?"

"It doesn't matter if they make sense or not," Barnaby warned, "stay away from them, and don't lose your cool around them either. It will just give them more reason to be angry at us. Publicity will deal with them," Everyone nodded in understanding, and then started getting ready for their work day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So far the Heroes themselves have not said anything about the group…" the TV droned on as Kotetsu walked through the front door of his house,

"Dad!" Kaede called, turning around on the sofa, "Hey dad! Come look at the TV!"

"What is it?" Kotetsu walked into the living room and glared at the TV. He had just gotten home from work, and everyone was sitting in the living room, around the TV. No one looked happy.

"There was some sort of rally down town" Kotetsu's brother said, "in front of the Hero's Building."

"They are saying that heroes don't do any real work!" an angry Kaede said, "that the heroes should aren't using their powers for anything but to entertain people!"

Kotetsu paused and looked at the screen, it was showing a crowd of people gathered in front of the Heroes headquarters, and it was apparently a clip from earlier this morning. "Why are they saying that?"

"Apparently there was a case of domestic violence;" Kotetsu's brother explained, "the police didn't get there quick enough so some neighbors had to stop the criminal themselves. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. They are saying the police depend on the too much on the Heroes, and the Heroes are only there for entertainment in the first place, so small crime has been rising." He shook his head, "Apparently it started this morning, but it is just now making the headlines because an anti-NEXT group has announced their support of the protest"

"Everyone down there is stupid," Kaede declared, "they are blaming the Heroes for the police being lazy? And why would anyone hate NEXTs, they are just normal people."

"It's an old hatred just rearing its ugly head" Ms. Kaburagi said trying to sooth Kaede, "NEXT are different from normal people, which scares them. They are all just afraid, even if they don't realize it themselves. Some people are just down there because they want to be in a group that is on TV, as well."

"That's so stupid!" she said rolling her eyes.

"People are stupid," Kotetsu grunted, "individual people are smart, but as a whole they make mistakes, like this, that they regret later. It's called mob mentality, and it is a very dangerous thing. Kaede, I want you to come home tomorrow right after school, and please don't use your NEXT powers till this entire matter blows over, if any people say anything, just run away. Understand?"

Kaede blinked and looked at him confused "not really, but sure I won't use my powers,"

Kotetsu smiled reassuringly and ruffled her hair, "good, if anything happens tell me." He stood up and walked out to the back yard, he stood up and looked around the neighborhood grimly, he remembered his father, and the hatred he held for NEXTs. He prayed that this whole thing blew over quickly, and it didn't get serious. People were still touchy when it came to NEXT discrimination, they were fine until the topic came up, then suddenly your neighbors were your worst enemy.

He sat down on the edge of the porch and pulled out his phone, dialed Barnaby's number and waited.

"Hello?" a tired voice answered the phone.

"Barnaby? Man you sound tired, are you not sleeping again?" Kotetsu said referring to Barnaby's insomnia.

"Kotetsu?" Barnaby's voice cheered up considerably, "no, I'm fine. It has just been a long day" there was the sound of voices cutting in from the back ground, "everyone says hi."

"Say hi to everyone back" Kotetsu chuckled, "how are things going? I heard about that protest group just now, how are you guys holding out?"

"Good," Barnaby said, sounding tired again, "well not really, all of us were holed up at HQ for a while; because they have the building surrounded. Everyone that walked out of the building was being shouted at. The police had to set up barriers and we were all escorted out. Everyone decided to follow me home for some reason…" There was more talk from the other side of the line, Kotetsu heard Barnaby shout something, then the slam of the door; after a minute Barnaby came back on, "sorry about that, everyone is on edge."

"Is it bad?" Kotetsu asked seriously.

"I don't know, Some huge anti-NEXT group is using this as a chance to 'spread their word' or something like this. Agnes told us not to go to the HQ tomorrow, but go to a different location." He sighed.

Kotetsu heard Barnaby sigh; the younger man sounded completely exhausted, "Kotetsu I don't know where all of this hate came from all of a sudden. Ivan and Pao-Lin are scared. Karina lost her temper and nearly turned the protesters into ice sculptures today, and everyone is expecting me to do something. They said they came to my house because I'm the 'leader' or something."

"First calm down," Kotetsu said sensing how close Barnaby was from snapping, "and listen. This hatred didn't come from any wear. There has always been an anti-NEXT group of some sorts form, and none of this is your fault." He said reassuringly, "those people are just angry and they decided to place their anger on you. Now listen. Don't go anywhere Agnes tells you to go to. They will somehow figure out where you are going and meet you there eventually. Don't let any of the heroes go to work in their regular clothes, if people find out their identities their houses will be targeted-"

"Targeted?" Barnaby cut him off, his voice unsteady "you're talking like these protesters are going to attack us!"

"Calm down!" Kotetsu shouted, "This isn't some group of people who just want autographs. None of you guys but me and Antonio has really experienced an anti-NEXT group before. It's in its preliminary stages, but in a few days those people will become violent, and you have to take measures _now_ to keep people from getting hurt!" he paused for a beat, and listened to the silence on the other end, "do you understand?" he asked quietly.

"Yes" came the quiet answer, Barnaby sounded uncertain, but not as close to panic as he had been, "but what do I do? Everyone is expecting me to do something. And I'm not you Kotetsu. I'm not a leader…"

"you don't have to be a leader," Kotetsu said reassuringly, "let me talk to everyone, I'll clear things up,"

"Okay," Barnaby's voice sounded steadier, "hold on I went into my room so they wouldn't be listening in."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Barnaby exited his room, phone in hand. Everyone looked up at him as soon as he walked in, expectantly. They were sitting nervously around the empty living room.

"Kotetsu wants to talk to everyone." He said putting the phone on speaker, he sat down with the others; everyone turned their attention to the phone.

"Hey everyone," Kotetsu's artificial voice came through the speaker, "I heard you all had a bad day," Everyone immediately began talking at once, telling him about the protest and their version of the day, "I hear you," Kotetsu said after everyone quieted down, "I saw the news and wanted to check in, you guys are in a real tough spot"

"We haven't even done anything!" Karina said angrily, "why are they blaming us!"

"Because, Karina," Kotetsu sighed, "people are stupid. If they are angry they are going to take it out on the first thing they think of related to the topic. They just decided to take it out on you; and this anti-NEXT group is not helping things out either. The next few days are going to be tough, very though. And I'm not going to lie and tell you all it is going to be fine, because if you aren't careful over the next few days, you _might_ get hurt. However there are things we can do now to keep things from escalating."

Barnaby observed everyone as Kotetsu spoke; he noticed how as Kotetsu spoke, all the Heroes seemed to sit up straighter and pull themselves out of the depressed panic they had been slowly going down into all day. He watched amazed as each person seemed more resolute as Kotetsu continued to spoke; and Barnaby realized just how great of a leader Kotetsu was to be able to do this. He was a much better leader that Barnaby was, that was for sure.

"Now listen up, this is what I you have to do over the next few days" Kotetsu continued, "Karina, Pao-Lin, and Ivan. You guys are to stay at home; I don't care what your sponsors say, or what the media demands. _Do not do anything_. No offense, but you are only kids; and kids should not get caught up in something like this at all."

"But we can fight!" Pao-Lin defended, Karina agreed with her, Ivan looked dejected.

"I know you can" Kotetsu said seriously, "and that's the point. These people are looking for a fight. If you win, it will prove their claims of you guys misusing your powers. And if you lose..."

"They wouldn't go that far" Karina said uncertainly, "would they?"

"If things continue the way they are," Antonio but in, "they will. Back when I and Kotetsu were kids there were groups like this everywhere, this isn't some kind of game. They will hurt you."

"Which brings up my next point," Kotetsu said seriously, "like I said, they will challenge you to fight, you are to _run_. Don't fight, don't play their game. You run, simple as that. Don't hurt anyone; just run, using your powers if you have to. Just lay as low as you can, Pao-Lin, if you could go visit your parents out of town that would be great, I want you guys as far from this matter as you can be. Now hand over your Hero bands to Nathan. Until all of this clears up, I want you three to stay out of the fight, with your families. This is for your own safety."

"Okay," all three said, they took off their hero wrist bands dejectedly, and handed them to Nathan.

"Now everyone else, here is how things will go," Kotetsu said after a while, "Only contact Agnes or Ben wirelessly. It would be best if you only showed up physically for important stuff, and stick together. Don't show up in your average clothing or leave in it, make sure you aren't followed back to your houses, change into your costumes someplace other than your home, don't leave or enter your home in them. If any of your homes are found out, you guys can stay at my town home. Antonio has a key. That's all I can really say for now," Kotetsu said dejectedly, "are there any questions?"

"What do we tell our sponsors?" Karina asked.

"I'll talk to them," Barnaby said, "I'll just tell them the truth: that we don't want them to get hurt and they won't be showing up till this entire thing blows over." He smiled at them reassuringly, "if they argue I'll beat some sense into them, don't worry."

"I don't think I could get a continental train ticket" Pao-Lin said, "It's too expensive for such short notice,"

"You can stay with me…" Ivan volunteered, "We'll go visit my parents. They live out of town; I'll have to ask…"

"That's perfect," Kotetsu said, "its summer time, so you guys could stay there for a while,"

"If not, they could both go up to my beach house!" Keith said cheerfully. Everyone looked at him.

"You have a beach house!" Ivan said indignantly, "why didn't you ever say anything?"

Keith, not noticing Ivan's anger, said "I lived there before I became a Hero. I usually just rent it out during the summer, but no one is in there now. You guys could go up there with Karina and her parents… something wrong, Ivan?"

"Nothing" Ivan glared.

"oh," Keith said looking off to the side, "Well you guys could all stay up there, it is out of town, so it might be safe"

"Sounds good." Ivan sighed, "Give me the address for the beach house, Pao-Lin and I can head up there tomorrow morning."

"I'll call my parents and ask to go" Karina said happily, "I haven't gotten a chance to go to the beach since I became a Hero"

"You guys have fun up there" Nathan said "after all this mess is cleared up, maybe we can all join you"

"the house isn't that big," Keith frowned, "not all of us can fit,"

"Okay let's get back on topic here," Barnaby said, "what about us four left here?" he turned to Antonio, Nathan and Keith, "would it be better for us to stay at our houses alone? Or stay together in one place for safety's sake?"

"It would probably be safer to stay in a group," Antonio admitted, "but where would we stay? Your apartment isn't very people friendly, mine is small-"

"And don't forget I have John," Keith reminded, "my dog, but my apartment is small as well,"

"My apartment doesn't allow pets" Nathan sighed, "and neither does Barnaby's."

"Go ahead and move into my place then, there is enough room." Kotetsu said.

"What about pets?" Keith asked.

"Pets are allowed so long as they aren't loud or make a mess" Kotestsu said

"Well John is neither of those," Keith smiled, "so that's good."

"So everyone knows what to do?" Kotetsu asked.

"I think so," Antonio said, "I can't think of anything we haven't covered,"

"That's everything" Karina said closing her phone, "I texted my mom and she said that she would drive us all out to Keith's house tomorrow, she will be coming with us. Dad has to stay home for business."

"Good then," Kotetsu said, "you guys call me if anything major happens, I have to go now, good luck"

Sorry about the long time it took to update.

For those of you who _want_ed to know: the names of the people on Kotetsu's team aren't all that important. They are just people to talk to so Kotetsu isn't talking to himself. That is why there are so few descriptions of them. However I do have a list of who is on the sub-teams, and for reference:

Red GROUP:

Leader: Kotetsu

Members: Kip, Locket, Smithsburger

BLUE GROUP

Leader: Matts

Members: Storm, Grendel, Churchill

GREEN GROUP

Leader: Stevenson

Members: Key, Cooper, Lee

Yellow Group

Leader: Wreck

Members: Roy, Harris, Watts

I refer to all of them by last names, though they do have first names (mentioned in chapter two). Everyone's names I just came up with on the fly with my brother. If any of them are actual characters from somewhere, it's his fault! Don't sue me, please.

I wanted to thank **Iscarion** for reviewing, if anyone else has anything to say go ahead and review, I don't actually know if I can reply to those reviews or not (I cannot figure out most of this system to save my life T-T) but I will try my best to take into consideration whatever it is you post.

I also want to say now that **this is not supposed to be a romance**between any two characters though there will be some references and hints to some of pairings. I just wanted to put that out there now so people will know now.

Well that seems to be all I have to say, this will probably be the longest author's note I post for this story,

Farewell, and Farewell again.


	4. Chapter 4

I own nothing.

Sorry if some people seem is a little occ. Especially Barnaby.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Everyone said their good byes, and Barnaby hung up the phone. Now that everyone had some sense of what they should be doing, everyone started jumped into action. Antonio and Nathan were to take the kids to pack clothes for their trip. After dropping them all off at Karina's house to stay the night, and then head out in the morning. Then they would swing by their own apartments and meet Barnaby and Keith at Kotetsu's old house. That left Barnaby to pack what little clothes he had and go to Keith's to do the same.

"Do you think he has enough blankets there for all of us?" Barnaby asked as Keith was shoving dog toys into a plastic bag. "Do you think we should bring some?"

"Nah, we will be fine," Keith said tying off the bag and throwing it on top of his half-packed suit case.

"You sure?" Barnaby noted that everything Keith had packed so far was for his dog, John. He wondered at that as he watched the big dog walk past him, following the heels of his owner.

"Kotetsu always has a lot of everything," Keith said from inside his room, "he calls himself a 'pack rat', but it isn't as much as keeping everything, it is more like he always wants to be prepared in case something happens. Nathan says he has enough toilet paper to last him three years, but you know,"

"Is he preparing for the end of the world or something?" Barnaby asked, his brow knitting.

"I don't think so. Maybe he just buys things in bulk so he doesn't have to go shopping," Keith shrugged as he emerged from his room with two overstuffed bags, "I think I have everything, can you grab the dog food bag?"

Barnaby grabbed a very large Kibble bag from off the floor, and headed out the door, Keith followed him, "John, follow" he called. The dog trotted after them.

"Go ahead and put that in the car while I lock up" Keith said, Barnaby nodded and started walking for the car, relieved that Keith lived on the first floor, he didn't have far to walk. He opened the trunk to Antonio's car (Because neither he or Keith owned one, and the others had taken Nathan's) and place the heavy bag in the trunk. It was then he realized that Keith's large Labrador dog, had followed him.

Barnaby froze slightly, he was usually lost when it came to animals, he just didn't get along with them "ummm," he said reaching out and petting him, "good dog?" he looked around at the parking lot. What was he going to do if the dog ran off? Keith, even as good natured as he is, would probably never forgive him. Or worse, cry. Barnaby couldn't deal with crying people either, "umm," he said confused, "stay?" John looked at him for a second, cocked one of his big ears up, turned and walked away. "No! Don't!" he nearly shouted, before he saw Keith walking up with his bags. The big dog ambled up to his owner and followed him back to the car.

"What's with that funny face?" Keith asked as he put his bags in the trunk.

"I thought the dog was going to run off" Barnaby said feeling very stupid.

"John would never do that," Keith chuckled, "I trained him not too,"

"Oh, well let's get going," Barnaby, still feeling stupid, muttered. He watched as Keith opened the back door to the car, and John hopped strait in, Keith then got into the passenger seat. "He doesn't need anyone to sit back there with him?" Barnaby asked as he turned on the car, "I don't want him jumping up here or anything,"

"He knows better than that," Keith actually rolled his eyes as they pulled out of the apartment complex, "I know I'm not the smartest person in the world, Barnaby. But I know how to train a dog."

"Sorry" Barnaby grimaced, "I just don't trust animals much, that's all"

"You must be a cat person," Keith snorted, "don't worry too much, I trained John myself, he doesn't misbehave at all" he reached back and patted the Labrador on its head, "he's a good dog"

"You trained him yourself? How old is he?" Barnaby asked.

"Umm… about four years old?" Keith said thinking, "I got him when I first became a Hero, but the pound said they found him as a stray. So he could be a little older. He looked about 3 months old when I got him,"

"Four years," Barnaby said, "that makes him about 12 in dog year's right?"

"I don't know" Keith shrugged, "I'm no good at math, this is his house, the one with the tree" he pointed; the house Keith was pointing at had a large oak tree in its tiny front yard. The thing was massive, a rare sight in this city. Barnaby pulled up in the driveway, as he got out he saw the house was only a block down from a massive apartment complex. Even the houses around Kotetsu's were tall. His two story flat looked miniscule compared to the town-house-mansions that lined the street.

"How does this tree grow with all these buildings around it?" he asked, "it must never get any sun"

"God knows," Keith said letting John out of the back of the car, "Kotetsu mentioned that when he bought the house there were more Houses in the area like his, but since then the city has expanded, so people started to build up for more room. The year before you came, he couldn't sleep in his own house because of the racket the construction caused."

"That sucks" Barnaby said, as they took their stuff into the house.

"Yup" Keith laughed at Barnaby's reference, "maybe in a few years he will be like the old man in UP, where he is surrounded by office buildings," Keith laughed,

"Well he already is old" Barnaby chuckled

"Hey, you guys made it" Nathan greeted them at the door, "don't forget to take your shoes off,"

"Oh, yeah" Keith placed his bags down and started to pull off his shoes in the entrance way, "I always forget,"

"You do realize that taking your shoes off will save you a lot of money in cleaning your carpets, right?" Barnaby said as he slipped out of his shoes and walked into living room, John breezed past him and started sniffing around the living room. It was quite spacious, with an open kitchen. There was an eating area off to the side in a little alcove, big enough for maybe four people. The living room furniture wasn't the best, and the TV definitely out dated. The place was pristine, probably because Kotetsu hadn't planned on being in the house for a while. There were family pictures hung all over the walls, Barnaby noticed a picture frame on a side table. It was a picture of Kotetsu and a lady with long, dark hair. She was in a wedding dress and he was in a Tux. Antonio was standing in the background.

"Old habits die hard" Nathan explained behind Barnaby, "Sternbild has become so culturally diverse; most of the people in this city aren't even Asian. Most people, like Keith here, don't even follow our nation's everyday principles."

"Are you insulting me?" Keith asked as he walked into the living room

"This is Tomoe?" Barnaby pointed towards the picture, trying to change the topic.

"I think so," Nathan said, "unless Kotetsu has another marriage he didn't tell us about"

"I've never seen her before," Keith said picking up the picture frame and getting a better look, "she looks just like Kaede,"

"She does," Nathan said looking at the picture as well.

"I think she looks more like Kotetsu," Barnaby said regarding a picture of Kaede hung on the wall, "what did Kotetsu say Tomoe died of again?"

"He just said she was sick…" Keith trailed off,

"Every time we talk about Tomoe I can help but feel surprised that Kotetsu didn't tell us that his wife died," Nathan said gloomy, "I understand not telling the kids, and you two, because you weren't heroes when it happened, but I had apparently just joined the Team when it had happened… it amazes me that Kotetsu was able to keep going."

"I'm surprised he was even married to begin with," Barnaby muttered.

"Hey where is Antonio?" Keith asked, placing the picture down.

"He went to the store to get some food" Nathan said glad for the change in topic, "Kotetsu cleaned everything out of the house before he left for Oriental, he didn't want anything to spoil. Thank god for that, or else we would be neck deep in booze bottles."

"Booze?" Barnaby smirked at Nathan's word choice.

"Yeah," Keith said, "he leaves the bottles everywhere, sometimes you can't even sit on the couch because there are so many on it"

"I didn't know he was that much of a drunk," Barnaby mused, "didn't know I knew so little about him, now that I think about it. You know what? This is the first time I've even been to his house!" he placed down his single bag and looked around the room dumbfounded, "you'd of thought he'd invite me over at least once!"

"_That's_ because you don't drink hard liquor" Nathan laughed, "The only time anyone _ever_ visits Kotetsu's house is when theyare too hammered to get home themselves."

"Yeah, and you usually regret it later," Keith winced as if remembering something painful, "Kotetsu isn't a very open person, I honestly didn't know he even had a kid till we baby sat the Mayor's son. Don't feel too bad."

"It seems odd" Barnaby looked around the house feeling very out of character, "it's like he's hiding something… now I kind of want to go digging through his stuff!"

Antonio came in then, with an armful of grocery bags. "Hey guys! We should probably put the cars in the garage," he said, "I have some dinner and some stuff for breakfast. Hi John! How have you been?" he placed all of the bags on the counter and knelt to pet John, "who's a good doggie?"

"Hey, don't forget to take off your shoes!" Keith said mockingly, "I'll put the cars up, where are the keys?"

"I didn't know Keith could be sarcastic" Nathan commented as the King of Heroes left the room, "I guess living with people really does open whole new sides to them."

"I think he's just tired," Barnaby sighed, "and so am I, what are the sleeping arrangement?"

"The house only has two bedrooms " Antonio said as he unpacked the groceries, "Kotetsu's and a guest bedroom. There is also a very small study up stairs, but it doesn't have anything but books and shelves in it right now, I guess we could put a cot in there, and someone sleeps down stairs?"

"Unless someone wants to share a bed." Nathan said, winking at Antonio.

"No" Antonio automatically said, putting a noodle cup in the microwave.

"Okay, both cars are in the garage," Keith said coming in through the back door, "we having instant noodles? Cool. Put one in for me, Antonio? I've got to walk John before we go to bed."

"Before you go," Barnaby said, "let's do sleeping arrangements."

"It looks like someone is going to be in the living room," Antonio coughed, ignoring Nathan's look.

"We could draw straws to see who has to sleep downstairs" Barnaby suggested.

"Nah, I'll sleep down stairs" Keith volunteered, as he hooked John up to a leash "John will be sleeping down here anyway, so it makes sense that I'd sleep down here with him. I think I saw some cots in the garage last time I was here,"

"I'll take the study, I don't need a whole room to live in, I barely use my own room as it is" he sighed, "I think I'll bring in those cots if I can find them, Nathan could you find some sheets?"

"Sure thing, gorgeous" Nathan chimed, as Barnaby walked outside with Keith.

"God living with him is going to be horrible," Keith joked once the door closed, "we will never have a moment of privacy"

Barnaby said nothing, as he opened the side door to the garage and flipped on the light. The garage wasn't very wide, but it was deep enough to fit two cars in, barely. There was the usual stuff hanging on the walls, as far as Barnaby could tell (he had never really had a garage before) there was a storage area above the cars , and on it was three army green cots. Barnaby pushed a box labled 'x-mas', to the side and hauled the cots down. He left one down stairs for Keith, and lugged the other upstairs. At the top of the stairs was a short hallway with three doors, one was open and showed a very plain, white-walled guest bedroom. The other two doors were closed. At the end of the hallway was an alcove lined with book shelves about the size of the breakfast nook downstairs. It had a small window meant to overlook the front yard, but because of the Oak Tree all he could see were tree limbs. He unzipped the cot from its packaging and finished setting it up just as Nathan came out from a room down the short hallway, holding a pile of linen.

"Ah, just in time," he babbled handing over half the pile, "here is a comforter and several sheets, and also a pillow. If you need any more there is a closet full of this stuff in the guest bedroom, god knows why. I think the restroom is the one right across from the stairs, but there is also one underneath the stairs. Though it is only a half-bath."

"Thanks" Barnaby said taking the pile and tossing it onto the cot, "hey do you know if he has any thumb tacks? I could tack a sheet across this frame here for more privacy."

"Try the desk drawers" Nathan suggested, pointing to a small desk he hadn't noticed before wedged in between two book shelves, "if it isn't in there, then try down stairs. He probably has some somewhere."

"Thanks" Barnaby said, then stepped over his cot to get to the desk, he started opening drawers, the main one was locked, but the second wasn't, it was filled random office supplies, he cursed his partner's organization skills, and started shuffling stuff around. Eventually he gave up at trying to find the tacks, and just used a stapler to staple the sheet into the wall.

Having secured what little privacy he could gain, he rearranged his room so he could get around to the desk easier, set his laptop on the desk, his clothes bag on an empty shelf. Arranged the sheets on his bed. Made everything as neat as he could, then went down stairs.

Keith was apparently back, he was doing just what Barnaby had finished doing, arranging his stuff. He set up his cot up behind the couch, and was busy taking copious amounts of dog toys out of a bag. He had placed John's dog bed off to the side, the Labrador was snoozing.

"Don't take them all out" Barnaby warned as he acquired his instant noodles from Antonio, "I don't want to step on some toy in the morning"

"I have a bucket for them," Keith said, "John's pretty good at putting them back in, don't worry"

"You trained him to put his toys away?" Nathan said amazed.

"Yeah, of course I did" Keith said, sounding slightly offended, "what do you guys think I did, just get a dog and let him run free in my house?"

"I never said that" Nathan said, "I've just never heard of dogs being able to do something like that."

"How did you learn to train dogs so well?" Barnaby asked, between bites

"My parents breed dogs," Keith said, "I grew up around them; I helped trained he puppies as well."

"What kind of dogs?" Antonio asked.

"German Shepard's, and Rottweiler's" Keith said, "for the police,"

"That's cool," Nathan sighed, "I wish my parents did something as interesting as that,"

"What did your parents do?" Barnaby asked

"They were just small business owners" Nathan shrugged, "they didn't do anything interesting. I know your parents worked of robots, right?"

"Yeah" Barnaby said awkwardly, he turned to Antonio "what did your parents do?"

"Me?" Antonio sighed, "I didn't really know my dad, my parents were divorced, but my mom was an accountant at some bank, I think"

"Everyone but Barnaby and Keith have interesting parents" Nathan complained, "Pao-Lin's parents are both desk workers, Karina's are too. I find it boring that we are all famous and our back grounds are so typical."

"What are Ivan's parents like?" Barnaby asked, "And what about Kotetsu?"

"Kotetsu _is_ a parent, so he doesn't count" Nathan waved his hand dismissively, "and I think Ivan's are just desk workers too"

"No," Keith said, "Ivan's parents run some big art school,"

"Really?" Nathan said, "I never would have guessed it. Is that why he is so good at art?"

"Yeah, they are really strict too," Keith said, "they really didn't want him to become a Hero, so they were on bad terms for a while. But I think they might have made up recently,"

"So are you and Ivan dating or something?" Nathan asked brusquely.

Keith's face turned an unbelievable shade of red at the question, "N-no! Why would you think that?"

"Because you two seem to be really close lately, that's all" Nathan shrugged. Barnaby and Antonio shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.

"No. We aren't" Keith said seriously, "we are just good friends."

"Oh, you sure? What was that whole beach thing earlier today, hmmm?" Nathan pried.

"Nothing! He's just been bugging… Nothing is going on between us!" Keith said. His face was beet red, and he wasn't looking at anyone in the room.

"I'm just asking because I'm curious" Nathan smiled evilly, "you're the one turning red and going into denial. What's really going on between you two?"

"He asked me out a few weeks ago, when we were eating out after that night bank robbery" Keith muttered, giving in, "and I said I'd think about it. We haven't done anything, I swear!"

"Oh really?" Nathan said, sitting on the edge of the chair, "why didn't you just shoot him down?"

"Because…" Keith said, "It looked like I would have crushed his heart if I said no. I'm not gay at all! But I'm pretty much the best friend he has here in Sternbild now that Kotetsu's gone, and.." Keith wrung a rope dog toy in his hands, "and why the hell am I telling you this? Just forget I said anything!" he stood up, and fled out the back door, leaving a very awkward silence behind him.

Everyone was silent for a minute, then Nathan sighed "fine I guess I'll be the one to go help him through this predicament!"

"Hey you opened this can of worms, so you deal with it," Antonio held up his hands in defense, "I'm going to bed, good night" the big man stood up and walked up the stairs.

"I'm off to bed too," Barnaby said when Nathan looked at him expectantly, "Hey, I'm not very good with the whole comforting part of friendship. Good night" he tossed his noodle cup into the trash can and bolted up stairs.

"Men!" Barnaby heard Nathan mutter as he went upstairs, "We girls have to do everything!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Barnaby woke up almost half an hour before his phone alarm was supposed to go off. He didn't wake up not knowing where he was, or even in a haze. He just woke up, but stubbornly refused to actually do anything till his phone alarm went off. The light coming in through the window wasn't bright, but it had a refreshing green tint to it, caused by the leaves on the Oak tree, probably. He turned over onto his side, and looked around the study. Most of the books on the shelves weren't books, but rather binders filled with papers. They had something labeled on the spines.

After about a minute of glaring at them sullenly at them, his curiosity took over. He pulled on his glasses and started looking at the labels. They were dates scrawled on the labels along with some sort of letter code. They seemed to date back pretty far; he found the most recent ones on the empty shelf he had placed his clothes bag on. He pulled the most recent out; and flipped it open lazily, and was greeted with a page of numbers.

He blinked, clearing his eyes for a second, and then looked back down at the page. There were rows upon rows of numbers, aligned in columns and rows. He panned through the pages, it was all numbers. He closed the book, put it back on the shelf, and pulled out another one; it was the same thing, just different numbers. He panned through the books randomly, not really looking at the pages. Was it some sort of code or something? He wondered, replacing and pulling out another random book, this one was different, it was filled with graphs. He looked over the graph and immediately felt incredibly stupid. The books were filled numbers that corresponded to the stock market; Kotetsu apparently dealt in a lot of open market deals, judging by the number of binders on the shelves in this small room. He replaced the binder, which solved the mystery of how Kotetsu always had enough money to pay off those fines. He had always wondered at that.

He looked checked his phone. Well that was a very productive five minutes, but he still had fifteen to kill before he had to get up and do something. He stood up, intending to retrieve his laptop from atop the desk, but accidentally caught one of his feet on the leg of the cot, and fell back down, hitting his hand against the desk side. He winced, curling his hand into his stomach, and kneeling back down. He had hit it in such a way that his whole hand tingled for about a minute, he hopped he hadn't woken one of the others up. He lifted his head and listened; he could hear someone, probably Antonio snoring down the hall, but that was it.

He shook his numb hand, silently cursing the cot. That was when he spotted a small, brass key tapped to the bottom of one of the book shelves. He stared at it, puzzled for a second, then reached over and peeled the key off of the wood. The key was much smaller than a door key; it looked almost like one of those cheap diary keys, but thicker… curious. Barnaby turned around and shoved the desk chair out of the way. Hadn't the middle drawer been locked on the desk? He examined the drawer, there was a small keyhole on the face of the drawer, he slid the key in, and turned it. There was a small click, and the desk drawer slid out a little.

Barnaby pulled himself up into the chair, and looked into the drawer, it was filled with the normal desk supplies, pens, pencils, some extra staples. He noted there were thumb tacks as well. And a stack of paper, or rather a note pad. He pulled the pad out, and shifted things around, nothing else. Strange, why lock it in the first place then? He looked down at the pad of paper in his hands, it had Kotetsu's messy scrawl written across it.

_10/18 – decided to keep this to see my powers progress, god I hope ben was just kidding, still have more power, only a few seconds off I think. Can't be sure, clock could be off is all._

_10/20 - definitely going down, ended at 4:53 today_

_10/21- held at 4:53 I'll only note changes_

_11/03- down to 4: 48, forgot to keep track for a while_

_11/07 – down to 4:45, _

_11/09- lost a second, should I tell?_

_11/12 – down to 4:40 today, wonder if Mr. L's went down this fast._

…_.._

And so the list went down. Barnaby read the journal slowly; watching his friend's scrawl become more panicky at times, and then even out at others. He could see the internal battle inside Kotetsu as the journal, not a list he realized now, counted down the seconds as Kotetsu lost his NEXT power. He finished reading the whole thing pretty quickly, and not for the first time he wondered if he was going to lose his power as well. After all his and Kotetsu's powers were the same, though NEXT losing their powers was very rare, he had heard. The thing that really unnerved him was that he had seen Kotetsu writing in this note pad several times. After missions he would see Kotetsu starring at the journal or writing in it. He had never _once_ asked Kotetsu what he had been writing or looking at. He thought the man had been trying to make a grocery list or something…

Several emotions ran through his head, as he looked over the journal, from despair to regret; he locked the note pad back up and stuck the key back to the shelf. It was too early in the morning to have something like this thrown at him. Behind him, on his cot his phone alarm started ringing. It was six o'clock; time to get up and face the day. He turned off his phone and started to get dressed.

Everyone seemed as tired as him at breakfast, apparently Nathan and Antonio weren't a morning people. Keith didn't even meet anyone's eyes as he ate breakfast and fed John. After what Nathan had rudely uncovered last night; Barnaby didn't blame him. Barnaby himself was to wrapped up in his thoughts to hold a decent conversation.

"I have to walk John," Keith announced to no one in particular, rinsed off his plate and left with John out the door.

"See this is what happens when you pry into other people's lives," Antonio said after a minute to Nathan, "he looks like hell, what did you say to him?"

"Nothing in you didn't hear yourselves" Nathan glared, "just so you know I couldn't even get close to him after you two went to bed, he took off once he saw me go outside, don't think he came back till early this morning"

Antonio rubbed his temples, "why do you always insist on creating drama?"

"Because life is a stage and we are but actors upon it!" Nathan threw his head back, and stuck out his right arm, mocking an opera singer, "besides he needed to get that dilemma pulled out into the open, he's been avoiding it for weeks!" he said more seriously.

"I should call Ben and tell him that we won't be coming in for anything inconsequential, and that the kids are safe," Barnaby muttered, cleaning up his own plate and walking out back. Kotetsu's back yard was small, like all the other Condos in the area; it was basically one big porch, with some small bushes planted along the fence line.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Ben Jackson, on the fourth ring Ben picked up, "Hey Barnaby, why such an early call?"

"I just want to know the situation at work, how are things holding up?" Barnaby said, sitting down in a deck chair.

"Agnes and the rest of Publicity are figuring out what we can do to take the heat off," Ben sounded tired, "its more work that you'd think"

"I can imagine," Barnaby said hesitantly, "all of us decided to keep a low profile till things calm over"

There was a real heavy sigh from the other end, "I wish you guys had talked to me, before deciding things."

"It was Kotetsu's idea," Barnaby defended, "he said things could get very bad for if we don't play things right; and then he gave us some advice on what to do, we went from there"

"It isn't like I could stop you guys from doing things anyway, what did you guys decide on?" Ben sighed

"We decided the kids should get away, in case things go bad, so Pao-Lin, Ivan, and Karina have all gone up to Keith's summer home till further notice. They should be leaving about now with Karina's mother."

"Frankly there doesn't seem to be a way to make things go well" There was the sound of ruffling papers, "I don't mind them getting away from all this mess, I mean they are just kids... their sponsors won't like it one bit though"

"Send them to me, I'll tell them to deal with them," Barnaby chuckled, "the rest is that the four of us aren't going to show up for anything unnecessary, basically we are only going to show up when we have to, and stick together."

"Kotetsu approved of all this?"

"Yeah,"

"Good, I'll support this then, Kotetsu has always had a knack for blundering through sticky situations and coming out unscathed. If he thinks you guys should lay low, they find a deep ditch and lay down" Ben chuckled, "he and Antonio grew up when there was still hate groups for NEXT. If it's anyone we should be listening to its them. I have to get going; I'll keep you guys posted"

"Okay," Barnaby said, "good luck,"

"You need it more than me" the reply came, Barnaby Hung up and went back inside.

Antonio looked up from the sofa, "how did things go?"

"Well, Ben agreed with everything in general, he said he would keep us posted"

Antonio grunted, and turned his attention back to the TV; he was watching the news, "that anti-NEXT group is still at the building down town," he reported.

"I'm going to try and see if I can find any more information on this anti-NEXT group" Barnaby sighed, then headed up stairs.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Is Keith's dog even named John? I think it is. If it isn't it should be.

sorry for the abrupt ending


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own anything

* indicates a footnote; check the bottom of the page

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I signed up for this team to go on awesome assignments, not to baby sit" Roy complained as they watched people wearing Pro-NEXT shirts and waving banners walk around.

"This is a military team," Kotetsu said to him, "we go where they tell us to go, and do what they tell us to do, stop complaining" Roy gave him a look, "well at least when I agree with them, and we are needed here, I don't want anyone being hurt"

"Can't Heroes defend themselves?" Roy sighed, "I mean why does someone who fights crime need a military team to look after their safety?"

"Hey, we are human, I can't tell you how much easier my job became when I started working with Barnaby, it's not all cool stances and cliché lines you know," Kotetsu said.

"At least the girls are cute," Roy sighed, watching a cute girl walk in the crowd, "that's a plus"

Kotetsu just rolled his eyes and continued walking through the crowd. He and his team were working security detail for a Pro-NEXT convention. Nathan and Antonio were going to go onstage in a little while; he and his team were there to quell any riots that Anti-NEXT people might start up. Usually the police would be doing this, but the force was just stretching a bit too thin, so Kotetsu had been asked to take his team out for security detail. Kotetsu and Kip were currently marching through the convention hallways, wearing their black-ops uniforms and holding riot guns; they fired electric bursts instead of real bullets. Kotetsu had wanted to dress everyone as civilians, but the politicians said they needed to show everyone that they weren't taking any chances.

"Tiger!" Nathan, in his HERO outfit greeted him when Kotetsu came into the green room, "it's good to see you!"

"Hey" Kotetsu said, "how have you guys been?"

"Good," Antonio chuckled, "we've been well,"

"This is Roy" Kotetsu said introducing his team mate, "he's on security with me"

"Nice to meet you both" Roy said shaking each of their hands.

"Nice to meet you" Antonio and Nathan chimed together

"Is it just you two?" Roy asked looking around the waiting room.

"Yeah, Sky High and Barnaby are coming in later today" Antonio explained, "that is when their panels are"

"Those out fits look good on you two" Nathan teased, "You guys look like you're cosplaying Splinter Cell, just without the weird goggles and head band,"

"Shut up" Kotetsu laughed, "we're supposed to be leading you guys to the stage"

Antonio chuckled, "well then, let's get going, or we'll be late" all four of them exited the room.

Kotetsu left them in briefing with Agnes to check in with his team, after a short briefing by Agnes (which was her basically telling them not to screw up); they would go onto the stage and basically try not to screw up. "FE and RB are in briefing, call in" he said into his communicator. He listened to all of his team member give all clears, everything looked to be okay, but for some reason he just couldn't shake this feeling in his gut. He gave a smile to his friends as they walked by him and Roy to get onstage. He was just nervous, nothing would probably happen.

The panel was halfway over with, when Kotetsu ate his words; two men, all dressed in black, jumped on stage. One of them had a knife; he launched himself at Nathan, yelling something about demons. Antonio, probably not with even an effort, stopped the man with one arm. The man struggled against Antonio's grasp. The stage lit up as Nathan set a ring of fire around all of the assailants, telling everyone on stage to get back. Kotetsu and Roy rushed forward, guns trained on the assailants.

"You won't be using your demon powers on us!" the second man shouted, he rose up black box with a switch on its side. He flipped the switch. And immediately Nathan's flames went out.

"What?" Nathan said, he waved his arm, intending to set up more flames, but nothing happened. The man Antonio was holding brought his managed to get his knife into the joint of the Bull Bison armor. Antonio yelled in pain, and dropped the man. He staggered backwards, knife still in his armor. Kotetsu and Roy fired. Each of them hit their targets, knocking the men out with the electric bursts. As Roy cuffed the assailants, Kotetsu ran over to Antonio. Nathan had taken the arm parts of the armor off, revealing a knife stuck shallowly into Antonio's arm, "shit" he heard Nathan curse under his breath.

"Pull it out," Kotetsu kneeled down and pulled out a small med-kit out of his supplies, "Antonio try not to move too much"

Together they pulled the knife out, cleaned the wound, and wrapped it up, "I'll take him back stage, have a real doctor look at it" Nathan said, picking up the pieces of armor. He paused and flourished his arm for a second, then scowled.

"Something wrong?" Antonio grunted.

"No fire is coming out," Nathan said puzzled, as they walked away.

"Must not be that machine they used" Antonio said gravely, "My powers stopped working as well" all three of them looked at each other, worried.

"I'll have someone in the tech lab look at it," Kotetsu offered, "get him to a doctor," he said to Nathan, pointing at Antonio "Let's go" Kotetsu sighed, walking up to Roy. They each threw one of the assailants over his shoulder. The black device dropped out of the man's hands and onto the ground. Kotetsu picked it up and looked at it gravely.

"Do you really think it takes away next powers?" Roy asked, "I thought it might have been a bomb detonator at first, but nothing happened when he flicked the switch,"

"I don't know," Kotetsu said, pocketing the device, "we'll have Dain look at it when we get back"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yuri grunted as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, it had been several days since he had woken up; almost a week and he still felt like a crap. Major Ray had simply told him when he woke up that he wasn't in critical condition anymore, but that didn't mean he was anywhere near fit condition. He had several cracked ribs, and the rest were badly bruised; not to mention the cut in his side and bruises covering his body. The first time he had managed to hobble into the shower he had honestly wondered if his skin would ever return to its normal color. Though most of them had now faded, he still had several bad ones dotting his arms and legs. The doctor announced that his ribs were almost done healing though, which was a good sigh. One more step towards full recovery; and then jail.

He sighed and turned his head as a nurse walked in; it was a statement to how little they trusted him, seeing as everyone who came into the room to check on him was wearing a fire suit. He always felt a little insulted seeing as he hadn't even used his NEXT power since he had been caught. The only person who actually visited him was his mother, and the most she had done was insist that since he had a lot of free time he should learn to knit. He had been told that Kotetsu had brought him in, but he hadn't seen his supposed savior quite yet.

"Morning Mr. Petrov," the nurse said, placing his breakfast on the bed table, "how is your chest feeling today?"

"Sore," Yuri muttered, "but I'll live, thanks for bringing me food" The nurse checked several of the monitors, and inspected his chest before leaving; leaving Yuri to eat in piece. He ate his cereal sullenly, he hoped his ribs would get better soon, he obviously wasn't welcome here. Just as he finished eating the nurse came back in.

"Mrs. Petrov is here to see you" The nurse said dully as he held the door open for his mother, the nurse took his tray away as he left.

"Good morning Yuri," his mother said, he voice sounding weary, and "did you sleep well?"

"Well enough" Yuri leaned forward with some effort, and rearranged the blanket around his mother's shoulders, "how about you?"

"Not well at all" she said patting Yuri's hand as way of thanks.

Yuri frowned at this, "are the nurses not treating you well?"

"No, no, everyone has been treating me fine," His mother looked sad, "though they still won't let me go home, your father will want to know how you are doing after this accident you had" Yuri's eye twitched at this statement, but he let it pass, "With all that is happening it is just worrying me. The Heroes are working themselves to the bone… I hope they are getting enough to eat."

"What do you mean?" Yuri said cautiously, his mother had never talked about the Hero group as a whole. She usually just talked about his dad.

She squeezed him on the arm; looking him strait in the eye, her gaze was very serious, and her usually foggy eyes were clear. Yuri resisted the urge to flinch under her gaze, and make her release his arm. When his mother's eyes were clear like this that usually meant she wasn't lost in some memory; that she was in the here and now. But instead of starting to shout that he was a murder like she usually did, she smiled, "I brought you the paper" she said cheerfully, "I know how much you like to cut out the HERO stories, but don't tell the nurses. They didn't want you to make a mess," With that she pulled out a newspaper from her bag and handed it to him. He took it suspiciously, uncertain what to make of his mother's current state of mind. As soon as he took the paper from her, she smiled sadly, and let go of his arm, her eyes went foggy again, and she started to hum to herself.

He looked at her worried for a few seconds, and then turned his attention to the paper, it was today's paper, and it had a huge front story covering the entire front page. As he read the title, his blood went cold. It read:

**Anti-Next Group Grows Violent? **_Hero injured in last night _

_Late last night supporters of the rapidly growing Anti-NEXT group attacked two HEROES at the Pro-NEXT rally yesterday morning. The Situation soon turned violent, when Anti-NEXT supports violently attacked Heroes speaking at the rally "Fire Emblem" and "Rock Bison" were attacked on stage by masked men wearing all black, and "A-N" printed on their shirts. The two heroes tried to use their powers to defend themselves, but a machine operated by one of the assailants seemed to negate their NEXT powers. The Anti-Next group then attacked, injuring Rock Bison. Guards at the rally were able to take down the assailants, who have been arrested. "The device is being studied, and the men will questioned" the Police Chief disclosed after the arrests were made, "either way the men will be tried for assault" (continued pg.3)_

Yuri immediately flipped to the third page and continued reading the story, it recapped the start of the entire Anti-Next group, and how it had grown surprisingly fast. He was extremely relieved when he read that Rock Bison hadn't been hurt badly, just a bad cut on the arm, and even more relived when he saw the story announcing that Blue Rose, Origami, and Dragon Kid had temporarily been excused of their duties as Heroes for their own safety. At least someone had the sense to realize kids shouldn't be mixed up in all this and make them step down for their own safety.

He read several other articles about the uprising going on in the town, most of the stories Pro-Next. He snorted when he saw a small article announcing his disappearance. It was very small, and at the very back. Its headline was "Lunatic missing?" it seemed to be some crack pot writer deciding to point out how Lunatic had been strangely inactive during this entire time. It even had the Gaul to imply he supported the Anti-NEXT movement. Yuri noted to pay the writer a little visit if he ever got the chance.

"Oh did you bring the paper in? Be sure to let your father read it before you cut our all the HERO stories" His mother asked as he folded it up and put it on the side table.

Yuri just stared at his mother for a second, and then smiled, "yes mum," he grew quiet, and then asked, "what you are knitting?"

"A scarf, it will be getting cold soon," she hummed, showing him the blue and black scarf she was knitting, "do you like the pattern?"

"Yes" Yuri said fingering the half-finished scarf, admiring her handy work, it was a nice solid blue color, with a single black stripe down the length of it.

His mother smiled, "good, I've already finished your father's…" she pulled out a red one from her bag and showed it to him. He took the scarf and looked at it glumly; it had the same design his did.

"They are both lovely" he said, handing it back to her, "he'll love it" he smiled at her and then agreed that he didn't have anything else to do, so he would knit one as well. She explained to him how the pattern was done, and they talked about small things until the nurse came in at lunch and took her away.

During this entire time Yuri avoided looking at the far corner of the room, where the ghost of his father was standing there silently. The Nurse came in with his lunch, and to take his mother back to her room. The ghost didn't say anything until the nurse had taken away his lunch, "so you've been captured at last" Yuri ignored the ghost, paying attention the daisy yellow scarf he was making for his mother instead, "so what are you going to do now? Escape?"

Yuri sighed and put down his knitting, "I'm not going to run away, I was caught. I've already admitted to being a killer so why bother delaying the inevitable. If I just run away, I'll be caught again, and I'm in no condition to keep up a game of cat and mouse"

"So you are just going to sit there?" his father crossed his arms and looked at him coldly, "while this riot is tearing the city apart?"

"What could I do anyway? If I kill the people leading the riots that will just prove that their demented views are right," Yuri said frustrated, "besides aren't you the one that always bugs me about going against the law?"

"You aren't taking things into consideration" his dad shook his head, "you should never sit by and let injustice happen"

"Don't you think I know that?" Yuri said angrily.

"Who are you yelling at?" Yuri and Mr. Legend's ghost turned his head sharply at the person who had spoken. Kotetsu was standing in the door way, he was wearing some kind of black-ops gear, and had what looked like some sort of communications device* pulled back on his head. He was looked at Yuri, and then looked at the far corner of the room and back to him again.

"M- No one" Yuri said frustrated running his hand through his long hair, "I'm just talking to myself, don't worry, how have you been?"

"Better than you," Kotetsu said pulling up a chair, "what don't you think you know?"

Yuri froze for a second, wide eyed, and then looked away "excuse me?"

"What were you yelling about earlier?" Kotetsu shrugged, "I'm just curious"

"Oh, nothing" at Kotetsu's concerned look he shifted nervously, suddenly feeling the need to explain he said, "I see… things sometimes, you know… because I'm crazy… I was just… talking to… it."

"Oh, well what were you talking about?"

Yuri looked at Kotetsu out of the corner of his eye, making sure that Kotetsu wasn't kidding, then continued, "it was… telling me that I shouldn't sit by and let people do bad things,"

Kotetsu shrugged, "seems simple enough to me"

"I've been telling him that since he was a kid" Yuri's dad said to Kotetsu,

"He can't hear you; you're a figment of my imagination" Yuri moaned

"I'm also your father; don't speak to me in that tone of voice"

"Just please go away," Yuri sighed

"Are you talking to me or the ghost?" Kotetsu said jokingly, "because I've got something to ask you,"

"The ghost," Yuri mumbled, rubbing his temple, "sorry, I'll try to ignore him, what is it you want?"

"He seems to be giving you good advice though. Being indifferent can be as bad doing a crime itself"

"Kotetsu, this ghost is trying to convince me to break out of here and do something about the Anti-Next uprising, and you are agreeing with it"

"Oh, then maybe it isn't giving you such good advice," Kotetsu scratched his head.

"That's what I'm trying to ignore him" Yuri sighed, "I don't want you to get in trouble, and to tell you the truth I'm not in the best physical condition to do so, even if I wanted too"

"Yeah a few cracked ribs can do that to someone," Kotetsu chuckled, "I'm sorry I haven't come around by before now, I've been kept busy with missions. If I had known you were so bored you were talking to yourself I would have come sooner"

"Busy with the uprising?" Lunatic said gesturing to the newspaper, "Is Rock Bison okay by the way?"

"Yeah, the newspapers made it sound worse that it really is," Kotetsu frowned reading the head line, "me and my team have been doing some work involving the uprising, we were doing security detail at the convention last night"

"Did that device really take away their powers?" Yuri said worried, Kotetsu nodded, Yuri felt a chill up his spine.

"It was like some sort of jammer" Kotetsu explained "we have some people here at the base that are trying to study it. The guys who attacked Nathan and Antonio say they were made to 'put people on equal footing with the demons' they keep spouting religious crap"

"NEXT aren't demons," Yuri spat, "people who call people demons are demons," there was a moment of silence, then Yuri threw off his blankets, "okay then, if you guys need my help, I'll need a change of clothes, " he grunted as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"H-help?" Kotetsu sputtered, "But I didn't even ask you-"

"If they are testing the device they obviously need a NEXT to use it on," Yuri said slowly standing up, "and I'm a NEXT, you said you needed to ask me to do something."

Kotetsu watched as Yuri shuffled over to a bag, "are you sure? I mean, you aren't exactly at perfect health"

"I could burn down this whole room with all my limbs cut off" Yuri said dismissively; going through the bag, pulling out a shirt and jeans, "my powers are almost completely mental. So long as you don't ask me to do anything physical, I'll live. Besides it isn't like I have anything better to do right now. Let me take a shower and brush my teeth, first though"

"Okay" Kotetsu said, after Yuri had closed the door he looked up at the security camera, "well that was easy" he muttered.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x

*The communication device Kotetsu and his team wear looks like high-tech head phones (not ear buds), but has black glasses that flip up and down that act as a HUD (heads up display), they also have a mike that goes in front of their mouth. The part covering the ear has several buttons on it, like Barnaby's 'ears' on his power suit. When Kotetsu walks in; he has the glasses up and head phone part of the device just behind his ears, he also has it back like this all throughout the beginning part of the next chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

I own nothing

the update was for some mistakes i noticed, if you see anymore please tell me

* indicates a footnote; check the bottom of the page

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I don't see the need for all of you to be wearing fire proof suits" Yuri said, to the several scientists that were working to figure out how the radio-looking device worked.

"I'm not wearing a fire suit," Kotetsu pointed out from behind him.

Yuri snorted, "I'm pretty sure that uniform you're wearing is fire proof, is it not?"

"Well, yeah," Kotetsu scratched his head, "but it isn't a fire _suit_"

"Let's just get started," Dain said nervously, "we're going to see how far the radius of this device is, Mr. Petrov take this candle here, and go to the other side of the room, light it with your powers and walk back to the table, tell us when you can't light it anymore" Yuri took the candle from the man, and walked with Kotetsu to the other side of the ware house they were in.

"If those guys are so scared of me," Yuri stated under his breath, "why didn't they just find a different NEXT to do this with?"

"Because you're the only NEXT readily available on the base" Kotetsu said, "all the NEXT soldiers were called in for security detail in the city"

"Oh," Yuri grunted, "why aren't you on security detail as well?"

"Because the scientists wanted someone to be here if you tried anything," Kotetsu snorted, "I know you aren't going to do anything, but they don't know that"

"Hmm" Yuri said as they reached the far side of the building.

"Okay, light the candle and walk back until you reach the point when your powers stop," Dain called from across the room.

Yuri closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the candle sputtered to life with his blue fire. He opened his eyes, now rimmed with small flames, and started walking back towards the scientists, "does that hurt your eyes?" Kotetsu asked as he walked with him.

"Hmm? Oh no, not at all, don't know why it does that though."

"It looks like it would at least catch your hair on fire,"

"I've actually only burnt myself once with my fire" Yuri gestured to his face scar sadly, he had decided that wearing his makeup was pointless if they already knew it was there.

"Yeah I've been kind of wondering about that," Kotetsu said awkwardly, "how did it happen?"

Yuri shook his head, "It's a bad memory," he grimaced. He took a step forward, and the Yuri's flame went from out. He frowned and concentrated on the wick; but didn't relight, "I can't light it" he called to the scientists.

"Okay!" Dain said, he pulled out a field measuring stick and measured the distance from the device to them "20 feet, and 5 cm" he called out the measurement, "okay Mr. Petrov keep trying to light the candle, turn the device" he called out to the last part to the scientists. They kept tuning the device, checking to see if it was the same distance from each angle. When they had determined the affected area was about 20 feet in a complete circle, the scientists started to crunched numbers; ignoring Kotetsu and Yuri.

"I wonder if you can light the candle inside the radius if you're out of it," Kotetsu thought out loud.

"Do you want to try?" Yuri asked. He took a few steps back and lit the candle with his blue flames, "keep walking to the center," he said handing the candle to Kotetsu. Kotetsu took it and walked up to the scientists, the candle not even flickering.

"That's pretty useful to know," Dain said, seeing what they were doing, "I don't think we'll need your powers anymore today, Mr. Petrov. Kotetsu can you see him back to his room?"

"Sure" Kotetsu said placing the candle down on the table, "let's go," when they had walked out into the hallway Kotetsu suggested they go get something to eat.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to take me back to my room,"

"That doesn't mean we can't stop by the cafeteria on the way, I'm starving" Kotetsu said pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, he put one in his mouth, and started searching his pockets for something else, he frowned "damn, hey can I get a light?"

"No,"

"Why not?"

"Because smoking is a nasty habit, it's disgusting and fowl, and ruins people's health."

"You know every person who sees me smoke gives me that exact same speech," Kotetsu said rolling his eyes, he found his lighter in the bottom of one of his pockets, he was about to light his cigarette when his COM beeped. He was getting an incoming call from one of his team mates, "hold on, I'm getting a call," he said pulling his Head device back onto his ears, and flipping the glasses down,* "Yoh,"

"Kip here," the voice came in through the speakers, "are you watching HEROtv?"

"No, what's happening" Kotetsu said motioning for Yuri to follow him, then walking quickly towards the cafeteria.

"Just find a TV and turn it on," Kip said, "The others and I are heading out to try and help now, I have to go, I'll contact you later."

"What is going on?" Yuri called after him, wincing against the complaint his hurt ribs made, but ignoring it. He followed Kotetsu into what looked like a Cafeteria. Kotetsu jogged over to a group of me watching a soccer game, he apologized and changed the channel to HEROtv. On the screen all the Heroes were facing off against several men with A-N printed on their shirts. The Heroes were obviously losing the fight.

"… the criminals seem to have taken away their NEXT powers, just like yesterday at the convention" the TV reporter said worried "though the Heroes are putting up a very good fight, but the number of enemies is overwhelming them," on screen, Barnaby punched one of the criminals in the face, knocking him back, only to be grabbed from behind by another one. Keith came out from nowhere, and wacked the man with what looked like a pipe, his helmet had been knocked off, it was lying behind him on the ground. His blond hair was askew, and he had a small trickle of blood coming down his brow, "Let's just hope they can hold out until help arrives!"

"God…" one of the men said quietly.

"Kotetsu, contact Agnes, if they can get Nathan at least 20 feet away from the brawl he can start covering them with fire, maybe sky high can too" Yuri said turning to the exHERO.

Kotetsu nodded, and then pulled out his phone, he nervously dialed Agnes' number, she answered on the third ring "Kotetsu, this better be good" she sounded very worried and stressed.

"The black device blocking their powers has a range, if Nathan or Keith can get far enough from the device, they can use their powers at a distance," Kotetsu shouted all in one breath.

"I'll let them know" Agnes said, and the TV screen suddenly turned into static. Kotetsu heard her curse very loudly; she hung up the phone.

"Agnes, what happened," Kotetsu shouted, "damn it she hung up," He shoved the phone into his pocket and turned to Yuri, "We need to get down there, now"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Keith saw the man grab Barnaby from behind, so he hit him in the head with a staff he had always carried with him, but never thought he would actually use. The man slouched to the ground and didn't get up, Keith didn't notice, he was busy fending off more attackers. Barnaby and he were back to back now, knocking back the enemies as best they could. He wished for the hundredth time in the last 15 minutes, that his powers would come back. He felt absolutely useless without them, like one of his arms had been cut off.

"We've lost the feed to the cameras" Agnes' voice came through their communicators, "Hang on guys, Military is almost there. The jammers for your NEXT powers have a limited range, if Keith or Nathan can get out of range, you guys could support from afar…"

"That doesn't seem to be a possibility," Barnaby huffed between punches, "to many of them"

"Not if we split up," Keith said, knocking out another enemy with his pole, "we go one way, Antonio and Nathan go another"

"They would just follow us," Antonio grunted, slamming two of the enemy's heads together.

"It's worth a chance" Nathan puffed, he was doing the worst out of all of them, he had never had to fight hand-to-hand without his powers before.

One of the enemies tossed something at both Keith and Barnaby's feet. Keith was about to kick it away when it emitted a huge electric discharge. Keith screamed as he felt the electricity race through his body, and he fell to his knees. Beside him Barnaby collapsed to the ground, with his armor on he had been more affected. Keith cursed, trying to stand back up, but one of the enemies kicked him down before he could. The last thing Keith before he was knocked unconscious was Antonio and Nathan falling to the ground through a sea of legs.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kotetsu, cracked his neck, he was driving up on the bridge into Sternbuild and he couldn't be any more relived to see it. He was tired from the long day he had had; and it didn't seem his day was going to end anytime soon. He looked over at Yuri. It hadn't been hard getting the Man out of the Military base, he simply snapped the tracking bracelet, and they walked right out. Yuri was currently putting the finishing touches on his makeup, to hide the eerie hand scar on his face. He had made Yuri put on one of the spare operation uniforms, so he could pretend to be part of his own team if anyone asked. Yuri snapped the case of his makeup bag closed, and threw it into the glove box, "you're really good at that, I can't even tell that you have a scar" Kotetsu commented.

"I've had years of practice, how do you think I've avoided being caught all this time? If anyone even thought that I had the scar, I'd have been turned in"

"But you had the scar before you were Lunatic. Why didn't you get laser surgery and have it removed; it isn't that uncommon an operation these days"

"It's… a reminder" Yuri said quietly, he was silent for a second, then suddenly jumped as if he had been scared and hit his knee on the consol. He gasped in pain, and doubled over, clutching his knee. Yuri's sudden movement made Kotetsu jump as well "Are you okay?!" he asked.

Yuri muttered something about his father under his breath, then turned around in his seat and yelled at the back seat "Go away you miserable-" Yuri cut suddenly, and gave the seat a fierce glare. Kotetsu was afraid Yuri would actually set it on fire for a brief second, but then his companion turned back around in his chair, "sorry," he said catching Kotetsu's stare.

"W-what was that about?" Kotetsu said nervously glancing in the rear view mirror at the back chair.

"Just seeing things again" he huffed, running his hands through his long hair, "fucking haunt nearly scared me to death"

Kotetsu stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds, and then turned his attention back to the road, "is it gone now?" he asked glancing into his back mirror at the back seat.

"Yeah…" Yuri sighed, "no matter what anyone ever tells you, seeing things is not, in any way, a gift."

"I would think so," Kotetsu said sweat dropping, "what did it say this time?"

Yuri shifted nervously, "nothing, just the usual nonsense"

"You know, it might just be your subconscious trying to tell you something" Kotetsu said trying to be helpful, "maybe if you actually listened to it, you'll stop being haunted" he looked over at Yuri, who was looking at Kotetsu as if he had just suggested that Yuri grow an extra arm.

Yuri shook the look off his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I could never- I know that you're just trying to help Kotetsu; but everything that you say just confuses me,"

"Oh," Kotetsu frowned, "how so?"

"Take the advice you just gave me. The ghost said… that I don't keep the scar as a reminder, but because it can't forgive myself. But how can I forgive myself if what I did was unforgivable?" Yuri asked honestly.

Kotetsu thought about this for a while, "Maybe It just seems unforgivable to you?"

"But I know what I did was horrible, I know without a doubt it's unforgivable"

"Well, could you tell me what you did? Sometimes just telling someone can ease the burden. I won't think any differently of you, I mean I know you now, and that's all I really judge people by. I'll understand if you don't want to tell me though."

Kotetsu fell silent and waited for Yuri's answer, after about a minute Yuri turned off the radio and took a deep breath, he looked like he was about to say something then fell silent again, they sat in absolute silence for another minute, then Yuri finally decided to speak, "My father… was a NEXT. He… was a very good man… the best father in the world. He was…" Yuri looked at Kotetsu sadly, " " he said really quickly and then winced.

Kotetsu's eyes went wide, "Your father is THE LEGEND?!" he said in disbelief, turning to face Yuri.

Yuri nodded, his face downcast, "Yes, and… I killed him," Yuri said quickly, and then looked away, as if ashamed to look Kotetsu in the face. Kotetsu stared blankly at Yuri, his mind as blank as his face, Yuri didn't meet his face but continued talking, "I don't know if you know this or not… but his powers faded just like yours did…"

"I-I knew that," Kotetsu said stupidly, he turned away from Yuri and looked at the steering wheel, "They were staging captures with him, up until his death… because if he had just retired the whole HERO program would have gone under…"

"He didn't like it, the whole staging thing," Yuri's nodded continuing, "he… started drinking, he wanted to capture real criminals, not just be some side show… He just kept getting worse and worse. He wasn't a pleasant drunk. He got so bad one time he became violent… he always told me to never let anyone get away with doing anything bad… and mom… I tried to stop him. But he just turned on me…" Kotetsu looked at the other man. He was looking at his hands in his lap, he the blankest look in his eyes, "W-we didn't know I was a NEXT then," he said his voice chocking, "I-I just threw up my arms to keep him from hitting me, and…" He looked back down at his hands, and conjured a small flame. He let it go out and looked away, "I… got the scar from him, he grabbed my face while he was on fire, I… didn't have enough control to stop it from… burning me or him" Yuri looked up at the road ahead, "Mom saw the whole thing," he said his voice sounding more solid, "she just decided to act as if it had never happened, that dad was always just busy with work and would be coming home any minute, she… just created her own little world," He fell silent, looking anywhere but at Kotetsu, "and I can't forgive myself for doing that, it's unforgivable, what I did, even if I did technically act in self-defense"

Kotetsu turned away from Yuri and looked at the steering wheel, "Feel any better?" He asked, not really sure how he should feel.

"It didn't change anything,"

"And?"

Yuri looked out his window, they were now crossing the huge bridge into Sternbild and the sight of the sun setting looked remarkable "Maybe a little lighter,"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two hours after Sternbild witnessed the defeat of their HEROES, the broadcasting network was hacked, causing all the channels to broadcast one video:

A tall, skinny man with blond hair and a black mask on stood in front of a bunch of other men; they all were wearing black uniforms with A-N printed on their shirts, "Hello fellow citizens, yes my dear people, I am the one who has captured your so-called 'Heroes!' You call it a crime, but you shall soon be thanking me. For my dear friends, you have all been disillusioned. The so called Heroes are not what they appear to be! As well as any other NEXT you might know. You see they are not human as they claim to be. They are but DEMONS! Sent here to foul our world, make a mockery of our noble race!" the man was now pacing around the room, clearly mad, in more ways than one, "but fear not for god has spoken to me, he has shown me how to nullify their demonic powers. So that we may cleanse the city of their kind!" he walked off to the left side of the screen, the camera followed him. All the citizens around the city gasped in horror at the sight they saw. Each of their HEROES, including Origami, blue rose, and Dragon Kid, was chained to a white wall; their feet were standing on the ground, but there were shackles at their ankles. Their hands were attached to shackles high up in the wall, so they were immobilized. Each of them had their masks and helmets taken off, and which were lying at their feet so the viewers could see who was who, "these seven HEROES" the masked man spat the word out, "have been leading you blindly into a false sense of security, they pretend to protect you so that you come to depend on them for your safety. But as soon as you let your guard down enough they planned to turn traitor and attack you instead!"

"That's not true!" Blue Rose, who apparently was actually a brunet yelled, "You're just some a man with a demented mind!"

The blond man walked over to the teenage girl, and slapped her across the face, "LIES!" he yelled, and then turned to the audience "she only says this to deceive you! Some of you are thinking that she is right, but that is only because she had blinded you with an illusion! NEXT are evil creatures. Look at most of the criminals in the jail, they are mostly NEXT! Those are not able to resist their true nature, and are therefore caught. But there are more, that are even eviler than the ones in jail that are living among you! God has given me the ability to wipe their powers so we will face no resistance when we flush them out to cleanse the city. Brothers and sitters join my cause by calling out those among you who are demons! My men and I will gather these NEXT up, and then kill them all at once! The first execution will be tomorrow at noon! See you then! Farewell my brothers and sisters!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*The communication device Kotetsu and his team wear looks like high-tech head phones (not ear buds), but has black glasses that flip up and down that act as a HUD (heads up display), they also have a mike that goes in front of their mouth. The part covering the ear has several buttons on it, like Barnaby's 'ears' on his power suit. Kotetsu has the glasses up and head phone part of the device just behind his ears, because he isn't using it.

Thanks to all who reviewed and read! Sorry for the long wait, I'll finish the story though so don't worry


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